Enemy at the gates

It is starting to emerge that it was actually disgruntled members of Nick Griffin’s own party that got him banned from a Buckingham Palace garden party.

The embattled neo-Nazi leader has been struggling to regain his member’s confidence and recently set up a new campaigns executive as a counter-coup against internal critics. This was achieved in true style when former BNP webmaster Simon Bennett and several others were summarily dismissed by Griffin and his re-formed praetorian inner circle earlier this year.

One embittered ex-employee is said to have reported that the right-wing leader and MEP was “parading his invitation around at every opportunity” in political gatherings.  It was also alleged that there had been a suggestion he would raffle off the ticket to raise funds until it was discovered that invitations are not transferable. Griffin also boasted about the royal party on his blog, calling his attendance a "highly symbolic breakthrough".

Having been beset by a succession of power-struggles, the BNP now finds itself in the more mundane but equally costly territory of fighting off a series of unfair dismissal claims and dealing with a copyright infringement (Marmite) that refuses to go away.

Meanwhile, Bennett has maintained control of the party’s Facebook site with nearly 26,000 members and its Twitter feed. He linked them to a new website which exposes the financial dealings of named businessmen with the BNP and calls for reform of the party’s constitution.

The BNP has taken legal proceedings against Bennett, presumably paid for out of members’ donations, but that has not silenced him. His website is likely to become a focus for those planning to oust Griffin from the leadership following his public humiliation at the palace gates.