'I'm no Nazi' says BNP man Griffin; Protests at Radio Merseyide.

Byline: GARY STEWART

NICK GRIFFIN denied being a Nazi when he appeared on the BBC's Question Time last night.

BBC centres across the country faced nationwide protests after the Corporation's decision to allow the North West MEP and leader of the far right BNP party on to the long running debate show.

More than a hundred people, including trade unionists and students, protested outside BBC Radio Merseyside's studio on Hanover Street.

One of the protesters, Alan Brown, who is secretary of Merseyside Love Music Hate Racism, said: "We feel he's not a legitimate politician."

During one point on the Question Time debate, Mr Griffin 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".

Mr Griffin said: "I am the most loathed man in Britain in the eyes of Britain's Nazis. They loathe me because I have brought the BNP from being, frankly, an anti-Semitic and racist organisation into being the only political party which, in the clashes between Israel and Gaza, stood full square behind Israel's right to deal with Hamas terrorists." Asked by presenter David Dimbleby if he had ever denied the Holocaust, he replied: "I do not have a conviction for Holocaust denial."

Mr Griffin was attacked by a number of audience members, with one man branding his views as "disgusting" and accusing him of "poisoning politics". Another man suggested he should be consigned to the South Pole where "the colourless landscape will suit you".

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Picture: JASON ROBERTS/ jr221009bnp-6