Welsh anti-fascist campaigners challenged a Carmarthenshire BNP candidate to justify the “extraordinary” claims in his election propaganda or resign on Wednesday.

Far-right fantasist Carmarthenshire County Council Penygroes ward British National Party candidate Kevin Edwards claimed in his election leaflets that soldiers at Birmingham hospitals had had to remove their uniforms to avoid offending Muslim staff and visitors. The leaflet also stated that homosexuality was being taught to schoolchildren as young as four.

Anti-fascist campaign Searchlight Cymru secretary Darron Dupre said: “We were a bit bemused by such claims, but were happy to give Mr Edwards the benefit of the doubt, so we checked. We can find no evidence of his claims anywhere. We know of an unsubstantiated newspaper report on Selly Oak Hospital in Birmingham, but that was disproved some time ago. We also asked the NUT about the subjects taught to four-year-olds. They were most bemused about Mr Edwards’s claims.”

Mr Edwards’s leaflet argued that British people should get priority in housing over asylum-seekers, even though – as Mr Dupre pointed out – asylum-seekers are not entitled to council housing. “He further states that asylum-seekers get free cars and TVs,” said Mr Dupre.

“Everyone at Searchlight Cymru is intrigued to learn exactly where this is happening. As Mr Edwards obviously knows something that no-one else knows, then we ask that he backs up claims with some facts. If he cannot substantiate such inflammatory claims, then we would expect him to do the honourable thing and resign his candidacy.”

Morning Star, 24 April 2008

Katherine Jenkins’s representatives last night confirmed they had started legal action to remove the singer’s image from an online video produced in support of the extremist British National Party. In a four-minute video posted on website YouTube on March 8, by a user calling himself “Egbert Saxon King”, the Welsh mezzo-soprano’s image is used in a bid to stir up opposition to plans to build Wales’ largest mosque in Cardiff.

Featuring designs apparently lifted from the website of the Madina Mosque in the Cathays area of the capital, the video claims the mosque would lead to the “Islamification of Wales” and uses a series of dramatic images to contrast stereotypical images of Muslims with stereotypical images of Wales. An image of riots in Bradford, for instance, is contrasted with a tranquil North Wales street market scene.

Viewers are then shown a picture of a woman in traditional Islamic dress, and a picture of Miss Jenkins wearing a Welsh rugby shirt. They are then asked which they would prefer. The video ends with an image of a BNP badge and the text “vote BNP”.

A member of Miss Jenkins’s management team said, “Katherine wants to have absolutely nothing to do with these people. We are trying to trace how someone got the picture. It was not passed on by the photographer or his agent. It is just stirring things up and we are striving to have the image removed.”

Wales Online, 4 April 2008

Politicians from all parties have put their differences aside in a bid to oppose the far-right British National Party. Sitting Assembly Members abandoned their campaigning and joined candidates and community members to discuss the BNP. The group is putting up a record 20 candidates in the National Assembly election, with the most high profile bid for power coming from leader Nick Griffin in the South Wales West constituency.

At a meeting in the Glamorgan Muslim Community Centre, Aberkenfig, near Bridgend, on Saturday, politicians including Environment Minister and Bridgend AM Carwyn Jones and Plaid Cymru candidate Bethan Jenkins pledged their commitment to tackling discrimination against ethnic minorities.

The Bridgend Unite Against Fascism Group, which organised the gathering, believes the BNP is a racist party which poses a threat to democracy and freedom. Unite spokesman Jeff Hurford said: “The highlight of the day was being able to get all of the parties together and a commitment to showing unity against the BNP. This all bodes well for future co-operation between the parties ahead of next year’s council elections.”

icWales, 4 April 2007