Six people were arrested tonight as anti-fascist protesters demonstrating against BNP leader Nick Griffin's appearance on Question Timebroke through a security cordon outside BBC Television Centre in London.
Some 25 protesters gained entry to the reception area of the building in White City, west London, as more than 500 people demonstrated outside ahead of the filming of the programme due to be screened on BBC1 tonight.
The Metropolitan Police said there had been six arrests, several for violent disorder. The BBC said the disruption was dealt with promptly.
Mr Griffin tonight denied he was a Nazi as he made his controversial first appearance on
Question Time.
During the recording he claimed he was "loathed" by Nazis in Britain because of the direction he had
taken the far-right party.
At one pointed he taunted Justice Secretary Jack Straw, saying his own father had served in the RAF
during the Second World War while Mr Straw's father had been in prison for "refusing to fight Hitler".
Asked by presenter David Dimbleby if he had ever denied the Holocaust, he replied: "I do not have a
conviction for Holocaust denial." He was attacked by a number of audience members, with one man
branding his views as "disgusting" and accusing him of "poisoning politics".
The number of officers on the ground appeared to increase significantly as the crowd grew in numbers during the evening. A police helicopter circled overhead.
Mr Griffin appeared on the show with Mr Straw, Tory peer Baroness Warsi, Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman Chris Huhne and writer Bonnie Greer.
Mr Griffin said this week that appearing on Question Timeshowed that the BNP had "arrived in the British political system" but he claimed it was "not hugely important".
Earlier this evening protesters outside Television Centre chanted: “We’re black, white, Asian and Jew, BBC shame on you”, and “we won’t let Nick Griffin through”.
But the BNP leader used a side entrance to gain access to Television Centre.
Senior BBC broadcaster Jeremy Bowen said as he left the building tonight: “I think it’s fine that people are protesting. It’s a legitimate protest. People are making clear their views.
“I think we live in a free society and there’s free speech and while it’s obviously highly controversial, I personally think it’s the right decision to have him on.”
Labour MP for Ealing Southall Virendra Sharma joined protesters outside the building.
He said: “It’s important that we show our opposition to a party that is deliberately trying to divide our communities.”
A London Ambulance Service spokesman said three people were treated and discharged for minor injuries during the protest at Television Centre.
He said: “We have four ambulances and two duty managers on the scene.
BBC director general Mark Thompson challenged the Government to ban the BNP from the airwaves if it felt Mr Griffin should not be allowed to take part.
But Prime Minister Gordon Brown said it was a matter for the corporation and he did not want to interfere with it.
An appeal by cabinet minister Peter Hain against Mr Griffin’s appearance on tonight’s edition of the high-profile political programme was thrown out yesterday by a special BBC Trust panel. It ruled that it was “a question of editorial judgment” whether it was appropriate for the BNP to be represented on the flagship show and refused to block the move.
The BBC director general said the BNP’s recent electoral success, which saw Mr Griffin elected as one of two BNP MEPs, meant it was right to invite him on. And he said only a legal ban, similar to that imposed on Sinn Fén in the 1980s, would lead the Corporation to consider breaching its “central principle of impartiality”.
But Former home secretary David Blunkett tonight criticised the BBC both for inviting Mr Griffin on the programme and its news coverage of the event.
“To spend the first 10 minutes of the Six O’Clock News covering their own decision and the consequences of putting the leader of the BNP on Question Time, was a total distortion of news priority and a deliberate promotion of their own publicity-seeking decision,” he said.
“The only people who have benefited from this row are the BNP and the BBC’s Question Time ratings. They really do need to examine their own consciences and the BBC Trust needs to examine the value of its own existence.”
Security guards had opened a gate to let a car into the front car park when about 25 protesters jumped over the barrier and ran towards the building.
Police managed to seal off the front entrance to Television Centre and were forced to divert traffic as the demonstrators crowded outside the main building.
Other protesters surged at the police cordon, chanting “Shame on you”.
Some grabbed police officers’ helmets and threw them into the crowd. The protesters also threw wooden poles used to hold placards at the four-deep cordon of officers, who struggled to contain the crowd.
PA