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BBC staff have been warned not to leave Television Centre tonight as police battle to hold back hundreds of anti-fascist protesters protesting over BNP leader Nick Griffin’s controversial appearance on Question Time.

An internal email was sent to all BBC staff at the Television Centre telling them not to attempt to leave the building unless they had to as an angry crowd of hundreds of protesters packed the road outside.

In chaotic scenes, up to 30 anti-fascist activists broke through police lines, jumped the barriers and stormed the building ahead of the far-right politician’s arrival.

One protester claimed she was hit over the head by a policeman while another was pictured being dragged form the BBC building by one leg.

Three people were arrested – two for violent conduct – as police grappled with a surging mass of protesters in front of the gates of the corporation’s headquarters.

A BBC insider said the programme was due to be recorded from 6pm but the start had been delayed.

A female protester screams as she grapples with police as the clashes outside the BBC turn ugly

BNP leader Nick Griffin arrives at the BBC Television Centre surrounded by minders

Drama student Heathcote Ruthven, 19, from Ladbroke Grove, west London, claimed he was hit over the head with a metal baton by police during clashes.

He said: “I didn’t realise for a while until the policeman said, ‘Your head is bleeding’. The police were being the more aggressive of the two parties.

‘A few people got hit and my mate got bruises on his arm.”

Campaigners had been outside all day but tempers flared as their numbers swelled and they angrily faced up police blockades.

Then violence erupted during an impromptu march when security guards opened a gate to let a vehicle into the front car park.

Just after 5.15pm, Mr Griffin was sneaked into Television Centre via a rear entrance, accompanied by security guards.

Speaking after entering the building, Mr Griffin said of the protesters: ‘I was rather expecting that.

‘The Labour Party financed groups from all over the country bringing a mob down here today. It was always going to be a fairly big event.’

Members of the Question Time audience were escorted into the building after having their passports checked.

Among them was Frank Langan, 66, from Ealing, west London, who said: ‘I’m going to go in and find out what Nick Griffin has got to say.

‘I don’t have to agree with it but I think it’s right that he is allowed on Question Time. I think everybody is entitled to their own opinion, even if you don’t like them.’

Hundreds gather clutching ‘Stop the Fascist’ mass outside the locked gates at Television Centre

Police hold back anti-fascist protesters as they demonstrate outside BBC Television Centre

Kady Pait, 19, a French student from Leeds, also made it into the building.

He said: ‘It was just a peaceful protest and then the police started dragging us off. It was a peaceful protest from us and then the police dragged us to the floor.’

Anti-fascists brandished their banners in the face of BNP supporters as they arrived for filming and were chaperoned by officers into the building.

As the debate approached, the protestors started yelling loudly: ‘We’re black, white, Asian and Jew, BBC shame on you’ and ‘we won’t let Nick Griffin through’.

Senior BBC broadcaster Jeremy Bowen said as he left Television Centre tonight said: ‘I think it’s fine that people are protesting. It’s a legitimate protest. People are making clear their views.

‘I think we live in a free society and there’s free speech and while it’s obviously highly controversial, I personally think it’s the right decision to have him on.’

One of the oldest protesters at today’s demonstration was Monty Goldman, 78, whose father Sidney marched against Oswald Mosley’s Black Shirts in east London in 1936.

A female protester is dragged along the smooth floor of the BBC by her leg screaming ’shame on you!. Another is pulled with her backpack

Police and demonstrators inside the Stage Door entrance at the BBC’s Television Centre in White City

A red flare is lit as hundred bring traffic to a grinding halt in West London

A protester vaults a car park barrier as a group of protesters storm the BBC building

Mr Goldman, from Hackney, said: ‘This party, the BNP, is an absolute disgrace. This man is a Nazi and he is also a Holocaust denier.

‘They wouldn’t stand for him if he was in Austria, they would have sent him to prison like the historian David Irving.’

Philip McCiowen, 54, from Welwyn Garden City in Hertfordshire, attended today’s rally dressed in military fatigues. On his face he wore a mask depicting Mr Griffin’s face.

A black toothbrush moustache had been scrawled on to the upper lip.

Mr McCiowen said: ‘Hitler started like this and in a small way Nick Griffin is trying to blame the Asians, Muslims and blacks. It’s exactly the same as in 1933 and he shouldn’t be allowed on television.’

As the demonstration continued, police with cameras started filming the protesters, many of whom waved placards denouncing the war in Iraq.

There were also union members in the crowd, including one waving a banner for the RNT and another with a placard for the union Unite.

At one point a protester let off a red flare as the crowd marched back down towards Television Centre along Wood Lane.

BBC staff and police struggle to restrain another anti-facist protester in the television centre’s reception

Police block the entrance to the BBC in west London as protesters try to break through the cordon

A police cordon warily watches hundreds of protesters as they gather outside Television Centre

Student Lukas Keudic, 20, was among those who managed to get to the doors of the studio where the debate was due to be held.

He said: ‘We were in the main reception next to Piers Morgan when about 30 police officers turned up. There were about 10 to 20 of us and we were just standing there chanting in a peaceful protest.

‘We spoke to the police and they started grabbing us. They grabbed one person and we started chanting “Ian Tomlinson” and then they put us into a corner.’

Ian Tomlinson is the man who died during the G20 protests in London earlier this year, for which police were criticised over their heavy-handed tactics.

Frank Langan, 66, had arrived to be in the studio audience and was shepherded through by police.

‘I’m going to go in and find out what Nick Griffin has got to say. I don’t have to agree with it but I think it’s right that he is allowed on Question Time. I think everybody is entitled to their own opinion, even if you don’t like them,’ he said.

A BBC spokesman said the disruption was dealt with ‘promptly’ and that the protesters were escorted from the premises.

‘A small number of people managed to get into Television Centre. However, they were identified and are being escorted from the building quickly.’

The BBC is believed to have emergency plans ready to move the show to a secret location if there is any trouble.
A policeman shoves a protester back as the crowd surges forward towards the gates

Mr Griffin is also unlikely to arrive through the main entrance to avoid inciting any further clashes.

At one stage, the BNP had considered flying him in using a helicopter to avoid any trouble but this was shelved because there is no helipad nearby.

The Unite Against Fascism group hopes its thousands will have joined the protest by tonight.

It spent the morning handing round pamphlets declaring: ‘No plugs for Nazi Nick… Keep QT Nazi-free’ before taking their positions.

Members of the far-left group Antifa, which has previously clashed with police at demonstrations against the BNP, are also believed to be at today’s demonstration.

Mr Griffin riled public anger over his involvement in the flagship show further this morning by thanking the BBC for giving his far-right party unprecedented publicity.

He will appear alongside Justice Secretary Jack Straw, Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman Chris Huhne, Conservative shadow cabinet member Sayeeda Warsi, a Muslim, and author Bonnie Greer.

The programme is filmed several hours beforehand and broadcast as if it was live, although sections can be edited out for legal or taste reasons before transmission.

Amid warnings Mr Griffin’s involvement could trigger racist attacks, the BBC insisted he would not be allowed to make inflammatory comments.

A spokesman said the show would be run in compliance with the law, implying that any overt racist remarks will be cut.

Also on tonight’s Question Time panel: (Clockwise from left) Justice Secretary Jack Straw, author Bonnie Greer, Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman Chris Huhne and Conservative shadow cabinet member Sayeeda Warsi

Outside Television Centre, Weyman Bennett, joint national secretary of Unite Against Fascism, said: ‘I don’t believe the BNP are going to be taken apart in the debate.

‘What they are going to get is a massive hustings for their fascist and racist politics and the price for that will be an increase in the number of racist attacks.’

Elane Heffernan, 47, handed out leaflets declaring ‘No Plugs for Nazi Nick’ and claimed the BBC had blocked anti-fascists from the studio audience.

‘We all applied for tickets but didn’t get one. A friend of mine was told she had a ticket but then they rang up and was told she didn’t,’ she said.

‘The anti-racist majority are peaceful people. Whether it turns will be down to whether the police attack protesters.’

Steven Ellis, 26, a librarian, said: ‘I am down here because the BNP should not be treated like a normal party.

‘They don’t respect the rights of others and the BBC should not be inviting them on Question Time.

‘A lot of BBC staff agree with us. A lot of people will arrive later to show their opposition to what the BBC are doing.’

Labour MP Andy Slaughter helped the protesters. He said: ‘The BBC know they have made a mistake and as usual they have made the wrong judgment call…

‘Despite the massive amounts of money they are paid and the tiers of management they don’t seem to be able to make the decisions most people would make.

‘I think it is just irresponsible. Cutting through the dinner party conversation about freedom of speech, the practical impact it is going to have on Muslim, black and Asian communities is reason enough not to give the BNP a platform.

Report: Protesters Break Past BBC Security

Protests over far-right leader on BBC TV program

By JILL LAWLESS (AP) – 4 hours ago

LONDON — Anti-fascist protesters rallied outside the BBC’s west London studios on Thursday ahead of a white-supremacist party leader’s appearance on a leading political debate show.

British National Party chief Nick Griffin is scheduled to be a panelist on the TV program “Question Time” — a first for the far-right party. Justice Secretary Jack Straw, a senior member of the governing Labour Party Cabinet, is due to appear on Thursday’s show alongside Griffin.

Many politicians have condemned the invitation to Griffin, but the BBC says that as a publicly funded broadcaster it must cover all political parties that have a national presence.

The whites-only BNP opposes immigration and claims to fight for “indigenous” Britons. Griffin has a conviction for racial hatred and has denied the Holocaust in the past.

The party has tried to shed its thuggish image and enter the political mainstream. Earlier this year it won two European Union parliament seats, gaining 6 percent of British votes in European polls. It has no seats in the British Parliament.

The invitation to appear in front of several million TV viewers has divided Britain, but delighted the BNP, which is counting down the seconds until the broadcast on its Web site.

It has sparked a debate between free-speech advocates and those who say giving Griffin a platform lends legitimacy to unacceptable views and could provoke racist violence.

Several dozen demonstrators handed leaflets to staff outside BBC Television Center Thursday. Campaigners said they expected hundreds more to show up later when the show was being recorded.

The head of the Muslim Council of Britain, Muhammad Abdul Bari, said “allowing the BNP to air its toxic views will increase Islamophobia and give the BNP aura of respectability needed to spread their message of hate.”

Labour lawmaker Andy Slaughter, who joined the protest outside BBC Television Center, called the invitation to Griffin irresponsible.

“Cutting through the dinner party conversation about freedom of speech, the practical impact it is going to have on Muslim, black and Asian communities is reason enough not to give the BNP a platform,” he said.

But Prime Minister Gordon Brown said Griffin’s appearance would expose the party’s “racist and bigoted” views.

He told radio station Real Radio that the invitation to Griffin “was a decision of the BBC. We are not trying to interfere with the decision of the BBC.”

The BBC is wary of government interference in its political coverage. In the 1980s, the Conservative government banned radio and TV appearances by members of the IRA-linked Sinn Fein party. The broadcaster hired actors to read their words instead.

BBC Director General Mark Thompson said excluding Griffin would amount to censorship.

Writing in The Guardian newspaper on Thursday, Thompson said the BNP “has demonstrated a level of support that would normally lead to an occasional invitation to join the panel on ‘Question Time.’”

Some Britons expressed sympathy for the broadcaster.

“The BBC is in a nobody-wins situation,” said Kate Smith, 58, a nurse from Essex county east of London. “They’re damned if he does go on and damned if he doesn’t.

“I think once the public sees what the BNP stands for, Nick Griffin will hang himself by his own words.”

Londoner Michelle Campbell, 41, said she was “shocked that the BBC would let him on their show.”

“Normally I would watch ‘Question Time,’ but I don’t think I could bear to watch it if Nick Griffin is on. ”

Cabinet minister Peter Hain, a former anti-apartheid activist, said the BBC was making a mistake.

“This is a racist party with fascist roots,” Hain told GMTV television. “It exploits people’s grievances and says it’s all the fault of black people or Muslims or Jews just as over the ages racist and fascist parties have done that.

“It’s very dangerous. Once you treat them as equal amongst the others they gain ground, we saw that in Nazi Germany.”

Other panelists on the BBC program Thursday are opposition Conservative politician Sayeeda Warsi, opposition Liberal Democrat lawmaker Chris Huhne and writer Bonnie Greer.

Associated Press Writer Rachel Leamon contributed to this report.

Protests ahead of BNP appearance

Video: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8321199.stm

Anti-fascist protesters broke into BBC Television centre ahead of British National Party leader Nick Griffin’s appearance on Question Time.

About 25 people were thrown out by police after breaking through a gate at the main entrance.

There are several hundred protesters outside the West London building.

Deputy director general Mark Byford earlier defended the BBC’s decision saying it was part of the corporation’s “responsibility of due impartiality”.

Mr Griffin is now inside television centre after being driven in through another entrance.

As he walked towards the studio for the recording, he said he expected it to be a “fair old political rough and tumble”.

He earlier accused the protesters of “attacking the rights of millions of people to listen to what I’ve got to say and listen to me being called to account by other politicians,” adding: “It really is a disgraceful thing.”

But Weyman Bennett from Unite Against Fascism accused the BBC of “rolling out the red carpet” to Mr Griffin and said his appearance on the flagship discussion programme “will lead to the growth of a fascist party” and promote violence against ethnic minorities.

Piers Morgan

The number of protesters gathered outside the BBC building has been growing as the recording of the Thursday night political discussion show approaches.

At about 1630 BST security guards opened a gate to let a car into the front car park when about 25 people rushed forward and jumped over the barriers, one of which broke, and ran towards the building.

A few minutes later the individuals were seen being led, dragged or carried back outside.

The Metropolitan Police say three people have been arrested, and estimate there are about 500 people taking part in the demonstration.

Lukas Keudic, 20, a student at King’s College London, was one of those who managed to get to the doors of the studio where the controversial debate is due to be held later.

He said: “We were in the main reception next to Piers Morgan when about 30 police officers turned up. There were about 10 to 20 of us and we were just standing there chanting in a peaceful protest.

“We spoke to the police and they started grabbing us.”

Gordon Brown

Speaking before the violence erupted, one of the protesters, Francis Pilling, 47, who works with immigrants and asylum seekers, said: “I’m here because I’m a committed anti-racist. We have to learn the lessons of history – we’ve seen what can happen when fascists gain strength.”

There are also protests currently taking place outside BBC buildings in Liverpool, Nottingham, Glasgow, where security staff and police officers stopped them from entering the building, and Belfast.

Earlier on Thursday BBC director general Mark Thompson said it was up to the government to ban the BNP from the airwaves if it felt Mr Griffin should not be allowed to take part in Question Time.

Some high profile Labour politicians – including cabinet ministers Peter Hain and Alan Johnson – have said they opposed the BBC decision to allow the anti-immigrant party a place on Question Time.

But Prime Minister Gordon Brown said it was a matter for the corporation and he did not want to interfere with it, while Culture Secretary Ben Bradshaw said that most of the cabinet did not share Mr Hain’s view.

Deputy Director General Mark Byford earlier defended the BBC’s decision to invite Mr Griffin, whose party gained its first Euro MPs this year, on to the flagship political programme.

He said: “They should have the right to be heard, be challenged, and for the public who take part in Question Time and the viewers to make up their own minds about the views of the BNP. It’s not for the BBC to censor and say they can’t be on.”

Question Time: protesters break through police cordon at TV Centre

Nick Griffin enters Television Centre for Question Time filming around 5.15pm, despite protests

Around 25 anti-fascist protesters demonstrating against the BNP leader Nick Griffin’s appearance on Question Time broke through a police cordon outside BBC Television Centre today.

The protesters broke through into the car park in front of Television Centre, chased by police, after the security barrier was lifted to let in a vehicle.

The BBC said the disruption was dealt with promptly.

A spokesman for the corporation said: “A small number of people managed to get into Television Centre.

“However, they were identified and are being escorted from the building quickly.”

However, despite the disturbance, Griffin entered the building via the Frithville Gardens entrance at the rear at about 5.15pm.

Lukas Kudic, a student studying English and drama at Kings College London, told the Guardian the protestors had got into the reception area of Television Centre where they chanted slogans. “We were in reception next to Piers Morgan,” he said.

Kudic claimed: “The police got violent with one person”. The student said he himself had been forcibly removed from the centre: “They grabbed my arms and put them behind my back.”

Morgan was at Television Centre to record an interview with Dannii Minogue for his ITV1 chatshow.

“They were peaceful – they weren’t hitting anyone. I believe that like Nick Griffin later tonight, they were exercising their right to free speech. I gave them a little clap. Once they established that I wasn’t Nick Griffin it was fine,” he told MediaGuardian.co.uk.

Morgan said he then went upstairs as the police arrived to round up the protesters and remove them from the BBC premises. “The good news is that free speech got a fillip and the bad news is that I survived,” he added.

News channels carried footage of protesters being dragged away from Television Centre by police, while still chanting and shouting anti-BNP messages.

Griffin, speaking to Sky News immediately after the disturbance, said he would not fight his way into the building.

As of 4.30pm, about 50 police officers had been deployed to deal with several hundred protesters taking part in the anti-BNP demonstration, organised by United Against Fascism. A police helicopter was circling overhead.

The protesters are staging a noisy demonstration outside Television Centre, spilling out on to Wood Lane and blocking traffic.

A number of the protesters were trying to make their way to the nearby Westfield shopping centre after rumours spread through the crowd that a number of BNP supporters were waiting there.

Following the disturbance, BBC staff were told to stay in their offices and keep their ID cards on them at all times.

By 3.30pm, about 150 protesters had gathered outside the main Television Centre reception on Wood Lane, west London, chanting slogans including: “Build a bonfire, build a bonfire, put Nick Griffin on the top, put the Nazis in the middle and burn the fucking lot.”

Earlier, at around 1pm, a man claiming to be a BNP supporter was chased into Television Centre reception by a group of demonstrators.

Coachloads of protesters from around the country are arriving every few minutes to swell the numbers in the demonstration, organised by Unite Against Fascism.

UAF organisers said 16 coaches are expected in total.

The media presence outside Television Centre is also continuing to grow.

The local MP, Labour’s Andrew Slaughter, was present outside Television Centre and said the BBC should not have invited Griffin to appear on the show.

Slaughter said he had written to Mark Thompson, the BBC director general, earlier this week asking him to withdraw Griffin’s invitation. He added that he received a reply yesterday from Mark Byford, the deputy director general, saying the BBC were obliged to invite the BNP on Question Time.

Byford’s letter added: “The BBC is obliged to act with impartiality towards all legal political parties registered with the Electoral Commission… The success of the BNP in winning representation in the European Parliament at the recent UK-wide election is a factor which we are bound to take into account when making our assessment of what constitutes ‘due impartiality’.

“It’s also worth adding that, even among those people who oppose the BNP as vehemently as you do, there has been an overwhelming response that the right way to oppose their policies is to take them on in argument.”

Slaughter said: “I told Mark Byford, ‘You should come out of your air-conditioned office and speak to the people on the estates.’ They are utterly affronted that the BBC is signalling that the BNP are welcome in the political mainstream. The smugness index at this place [the BBC] – which is always very high – has gone through the roof today.”

He added that it was wrong to compare the BNP with other smaller parties like the Green party. “You get some people who strongly disagree with the Green party but you can have an argument with them. The BBC has to exercise some judgment. It has abdicated it. As soon as you give these people respectability the people who support them grow in confidence.”

Slaughter added that Jean-Marie Le Pen had benefited from similar appearances on French TV.

Earlier, MediaGuardian.co.uk spoke to one protester, Robert Forsythe, who was holding a placard that read: “Shame on you BBC.”

Forsythe, an artist and former musician, said: “I’ve come all the way from East Dulwich because I felt so strongly about this. The BBC trustees have made a terrible mistake. The BNP are not even a legal party.”

He described the far right’s resurgence in the guise of the BNP as “like a second bad dream”. Forsythe said he was originally from Birmingham and had played with bands including UB40, who were active in anti-fascist campaigns in the 1980s such as Rock Against Racism.

Asked if he was worried that violence might flare up at Television Centre today when more demonstrators arrived, he replied: “If I didn’t get my legs broken in the 80s I doubt I’ll get them broken now.”

Demos greet BNP leader at BBC

LONDON, Oct 22 – Hundreds of angry demonstrators besieged the BBC’s television studios on Thursday to protest against a planned appearance by the leader of the far-right British National Party on the flagship Question Time political programme.

A small number of protesters burst into the television centre in West London, dodging a heavy security cordon, but were escorted out, a BBC spokeswoman said.

Around 400 demonstrators, brandishing placards reading “Stop the Fascist BNP” and shouting “Smash the BNP” protested outside.

BNP leader Nick Griffin, who arrived by a rear entrance, has been invited to appear as a panellist on the BBC’s Question Time debate show due to be recorded at the centre later on Thursday. The first appearance by a far-right politician on a programme regularly watched by 3m people has aroused strong reactions, with anti-racism groups arguing the BNP should not be given a platform and others backing it on free speech grounds.

Mark Thompson, director-general of the publicly funded BBC, defended the decision, saying it was based purely on support for the BNP at the ballot box in recent elections and that it was up to politicians to bar parties.

Gordon Brown, prime minister said the choice of panellists was a matter for the BBC but added that he thought Griffin’s appearance would backfire on the right-wing party.

Protests as Griffin arrives at BBC

(UKPA) – 40 minutes ago

BNP leader Nick Griffin arrived at BBC Television Centre for his controversial appearance on Question Time despite fiery protests outside.

Some 25 anti-fascist activists broke through police lines and made it into the building ahead of the far-right politician’s arrival.

Traffic outside Television Centre in White City, west London, ground to a halt as hundreds of campaigners demonstrated against Mr Griffin’s presence on the Question Time panel.

Griffin fears political blood sport

(UKPA) – 42 minutes ago

BNP leader Nick Griffin has predicted that Thursday night’s Question Time will be “political blood sport” but claimed it could propel his far-right party into “the big time”.

In an open letter to BNP supporters, he said his appearance on the flagship BBC1 political debate show was an unprecedented chance to present their views to the UK public.

Protests at Mr Griffin’s presence on the panel grew throughout the day, with anti-fascist campaigners picketing BBC Television Centre and one MP arguing it was “irresponsible”.

BBC director general Mark Thompson challenged the Government to ban the BNP from the airwaves if it felt Mr Griffin should not be allowed to take part. But Prime Minister Gordon Brown said it was a matter for the corporation and he did not want to interfere with it.

Mr Griffin said in his letter, posted on the BNP’s website: “Question Time is scheduled for 10.35pm tonight and will be a milestone in the indomitable march of the British National Party towards saving our country.”

The far-right politician predicted that Question Time would be “stage-managed” so the audience and panellists were “overtly hostile” towards him.

He said: “I will, no doubt, be interrupted, shouted down, slandered, put on the spot, and subjected to a scrutiny that would be a thousand times more intense than anything directed at other panellists. It will, in other words, be political blood sport. But I am relishing this opportunity.”

An appeal by cabinet minister Peter Hain against Mr Griffin’s appearance on the programme was thrown out on Wednesday by a special BBC Trust panel. It ruled that it was “a question of editorial judgment” whether it was appropriate for the BNP to be represented on the programme and refused to block the move.

Mr Thompson issued a strong defence of the decision to have the BNP on Question Time. The BBC director general said the party’s recent electoral success, which saw Mr Griffin elected as one of two BNP MEPs, meant it was right to invite him.

And he said only a legal ban, similar to that imposed on Sinn Fein in the 1980s, would lead the Corporation to consider breaching its “central principle of impartiality”.

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