BBC in race row after BNP leader blames Muslims for Britain's drug problems

The BBC was last night dragged into a race row after it broadcast claims by the British National Party blaming Muslim immigrants for the country's hard drugs problems.

The comments were made during a debate on multiculturalism on BBC2's Newsnight (click to see the programme), which examined the results of a survey for the channel's White season - a series of documentaries on what it means to be white and working class in Britain today.

It found that white working class are far more pessimistic about Britain's future than their middle-class counterparts, while more than half said no one represented their views and that their quality of life had got worse over the past decade.

When informed the poll showed that white working class Britons were more concerned about drug and drink culture than immigration, the BNP leader Nick Griffin responded with an attack on Pakistani immigrants. He said: "You can't possibly separate the hard drugs trade from the question of Islam and particularly Pakistani immigration. Any working class area of Britain - in a multiracial area - the hard drugs problem is related to Islam and Pakistan."

Interviewer Kirsty Wark responded: "I think there's a number of people that would dispute that."

Griffin went on to reiterate that mixing cultures is not a good thing, saying: "I would say that people who want to reduce the world to a mono-culture coffee-coloured world, they are the ones who hate."

A panellist on the show immediately criticised the decision to show the clip, branding the decision 'pathetic'. Talk show host and columnist Jon Gaunt last night said: "Putting on somebody like that knuckle-dragger. I don't really understand the point. He doesn't represent me and doesn't represent most working class people. He's not a working class guy himself, and the foul things he was coming out with there about the drugs and Islam and the rest if it, and the nonsense about coffee culture just makes me want to puke."

He added: "The BBC probably put him on to make out again that all white working class people are fascists. I'm highly suspicious. Why did you interview Nick Griffin on this debate? It's pathetic."

The BBC today issued a statement which defended its choice of Nick Griffin as a participant in the debate.

It said: "The views expressed were his as leader of the BNP and he was robustly questioned and challenged on his comments throughout the interview. Newsnight does not ban any group from taking part in debate as long as they are operating within the law. The programme has a reputation for tough and challenging interviews and within the context of the debate it was relevant to hear from the leader of the BNP. He was one of a number of people debating the issues on the programme."

Daily Mail