British National Party leader Nick Griffin will make a formal complaint to the BBC over his treatment on Question Timeafter he was jeered by the audience and his performance was panned in the press.
Mr Griffin claims the format of the corporation’s flagship current affairs programme had been deliberately “twisted” in order to focus on him and his party’s policies, leaving him to face a “lynch mob”.
He further stoked the controversy surrounding his appearance by claiming that London, where the show was filmed, was “no longer British” having been “ethnically cleansed” of “English and British people”.
More than 8 million viewers - around three times the normal total and more than half the total audience share - watched last night’s show.
The BBC today said it had received around 350 complaints from viewers, with 240 alleging bias against Mr Griffin and the BNP and more that 100 saying that he should not have been invited onto the programme.
During the programme, Mr Griffin, who was making his first appearance, was repeatedly jeered as he claimed Islam was incompatible with being British, the Ku Klux Klan was “almost totally non-violent”, and gays were “creepy”.
At a news conference in Grays, Essex, he said the format had been biased against him and demanded a second chance to appear to discuss the broader issues of the day. He said he would be making a formal complaint.
“The British public are aghast at the display of bias from the BBC, the venom from the political class, and the sheer unfairness. That was not a genuine Question Time, that was a lynch mob,” he said.
“People wanted to see me and hear me talking about things such as the postal strike. One or two questions about what a wicked man I am, fair enough, but the whole programme — it was absurd.”
The BNP leader also railed against the decision to film the programme in London.
“That audience was taken from a city that is no longer British,” he said.
“That was not my country any more. Why not come down and do it in Thurrock, do it in Stoke, do it in Burnley?
“Do it somewhere where there are still significant numbers of English and British people and they haven’t been ethnically cleansed from their own country.”
London Mayor Boris Johnson retorted that Mr Griffin was right to say that the capital was not his city.
“London is a welcoming, tolerant, cosmopolitan capital which thrives on its diversity. The BNP has no place here and I again urge Londoners to reject their narrow, extremist and offensive views at every possibility,” he said.
The BBC also dismissed the BNP leader’s complaints of bias.
“The questions on the programme always come from the audience which reflects a range of views and backgrounds across the political spectrum wherever the programme is filmed across the country,” a spokesman said.
"The programme is topical and it is normal for it to reflect topics that are in the news in the week — people would accept that the BNP and Question Timehave been prominent topics this week."
The decision to invite Mr Griffin to appear on the programme continued to divide political opinion, with Welsh Secretary Peter Hain complaining that it had given the BNP “enormous exposure”.
“They ‘hit the big time’ in their own words. Their membership has rocketed as a result of the BBC’s decision. You cannot treat the BNP — a racist party with fascist roots — like all the others,” he said.
However Justice Secretary Jack Straw, who was on the Question Timepanel, said that it had succeeded in exposing Mr Griffin as a "fantasising conspiracy theorist", although it was now time for the political agenda to move on.
PA