OLD soldiers have clashed with right-wing extremists after the British National Party used underhand tactics to book a Royal British Legion Club for a rally.
Following a public outcry Conservative MP Andrew Selous, who served in the Territorial Army for 12 years, led a campaign to get the meeting scrapped.
He said ex servicemen who fought against fascism in the Second World War were horrified their premises were to be used by the BNP, particularly when the date clashed with Holocaust Memorial Day.
Now the BNP has hit out at the South Bedfordshire MP accusing him of “acting like a fascist” claiming: “Many of our members are ex servicemen and the British Legion should be more patriotic and less political.”
The BNP says it regularly holds meetings on council and Legion premises.
Deputy chairman and spokesman Simon Darby told The Sunday Express on Friday that a political meeting was held at a Legion club in the north-west but refused to say where.
Mr Selous has written to Legion chairman Peter Cleminson asking him to issue guidance to clubs.
Members of the Leighton Buzzard club say their secretary Eileen Johnson was hoodwinked by BNP activist Shelley Rose into booking the meeting under the name British Heritage. It wasn’t until Mr Selous, a club member, discovered their real identity that he asked them to cancel.Mrs Johnson said: “As soon as I heard, we cancelled them. We don’t want those sort of people here. Our members wouldn’t be at all happy.”
Mr Selous said: “I think it is revealing that the BNP did not book the meeting in their own name. They are not prepared to be honest and upfront about who they are.”
The Express
