UK far-right leader's TV slot sparks protests

By Georgina Cooper

LONDON (Reuters) - Far-right leader Nick Griffin denied on Thursday he was a Nazi during a television debate which provoked political uproar, as police scuffled with anti-racist demonstrators outside the studio.

The first appearance by a British National Party leader on the BBC's flagship "Question Time" political programme, which regularly attracts three million viewers, divided British society.

Anti-racism groups and some politicians argued that the BNP should not be given a platform on the publicly-funded BBC while others backed the invitation to Griffin on free speech grounds.

Griffin, whose party wants a halt to immigration and Britain's withdrawal from the European Union, was quizzed by fellow panellists and members of the studio audience about comments he had made about World War Two and the Nazi Holocaust.

"I am not a Nazi, I never have been," he said.

British Nazis "loathe me because I have brought the BNP from being frankly an anti-semitic and racist organisation to 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," he said.

Asked if he had ever denied the Holocaust, Griffin did not answer directly, saying only: "I do not have a conviction for Holocaust denial."

Some 500 demonstrators, waving placards reading "Stop the Fascist BNP" and shouting "Smash the BNP," protested outside the BBC complex in West London.