BNP leader blasts Army chiefs with Nazi war criminals jibe

British National Party leader Nick Griffin compared UK generals to Nazi war criminals last night after they accused his party of hijacking military symbols.

Mr Griffin also sparked outrage by claiming Winston Churchill would join the BNP if he was still alive – and sugg-esting his party was the most widely-supported among rank-and-file soldiers.

His extraordinary claims came amid last-ditch efforts to stop the BBC screening a Question Time debate between Mr Griffin and other politicians tomorrow.

A statement on the BNP website lashed out at senior figures, including ex-Army chiefs General Sir Mike Jackson and General Sir Richard Dannatt. It accused them of “breaking all military protocol” by writing to a national newspaper voicing anger at the BNP’s use of images of Churchill and Spitfire planes during recent European election campaigns.

“There is a prima facie case for charging Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, William Hague and David Cameron with waging aggressive war against Iraq,” Mr Griffin said. “The Nuremberg war crimes trials set the precedent when the leaders of Nazi Germany were charged with invading other countries which represented no military threat to Germany.

“Along with the political leadership of Nazi Germany, the chiefs of staff of the German army, Alfred Jodl and Wilhelm Keitel, were also charged with waging aggressive war. Sir Richard and Sir Mike fall into this bracket and they must not think that they will escape culpability for pursuing the illegal wars in Iran and Afghanistan.”

In their letter, the generals wrote: “We call on all those who seek to hijack the good name of Britain's military for their own advantage to cease and desist.

“The values of these extremists – many of whom are essentially racist – are fundamentally at odds with the values of the modern British military, such as tolerance and fairness.”

General Jackson specifically attacked the BNP for using the Army’s image. He said: “The BNP is claiming that it has a better relationship with the armed forces than other political parties. How dare they use the image of the Army, in particular, to promote their policies? These people are beyond the pale.”

Mr Griffin said his party was popular among the forces’ rank-and-file.

“I’m the one who talks to the families of young squaddies and large numbers of ex-servicemen and they all say almost everyone at the coalface, fighting in Afghanistan, vote for the British National Party,” he said.

He dismissed claims he wanted a white-only military, but admitted the Victoria Cross-holding black corporal Johnson Beharry would not be allowed to join the BNP.

He said: “If Winston Chur-chill were alive and in British politics today the things he said about the dangers of mass immigration – not individual coloured people, who are fine but immigration en masse – the things he said about Islam, and the things he said about the dangers of a federal Europe, would actually get him expelled from the Conservative Party.

“His own place would be in the British National Party.”

A Conservative Party spokesman described Mr Griffin’s remarks comparing the generals to Nazi war criminals as “absolutely despicable and abhorrent”.

Wales Secretary Peter Hain continued his bid to stop tomorrow’s edition of Question Time being aired, on the grounds the BNP is currently illegal as it does not allow ethnic minorities to join.

BBC director-general Mark Thompson has already rejected Mr Hain’s argument.