71634-10THE BNP has distanced itself from racist graffiti which has appeared in Swindon. As reported in the Evening Advertiser, the letters "BNP" were spray-painted on the wall of 66-year-old Iqbal Baines' home in Union Street on Tuesday night.

And later in the week, slogans such as 'Paki Scum' were sprayed in the alleyway between Victoria Road and the Prospect Place car park.

But Dr Phill Edwards, the party's national spokesman, insists that members of the party are not responsible.

He said: "Apart from the fact that BNP members would not commit criminal damage anyway ie by daubing graffiti it would be foolish and counterproductive to daub BNP anywhere, let alone on the house of an Asian.

"We condemn all such activities."

BNP leader Nick Griffin recently stirred controversy with comments about Islam, including the suggestion that it had spread through violence and rape.

However Dr Edwards insisted that the party was not racist, and that its aim was merely to preserve the traditional culture and identity of Britain.

He added that there was nothing wrong with the BNP.

The Evening Advertiser also recently highlighted the fears of a Swindon peace campaigner after his name, address and postcode were placed on a white supremacist website called Stormfront by a person who claimed to be a BNP canvasser.

Mr Newman said at the time that he was worried for the safety of his wife and infant children.

He said: "Having my name and address on this website could be very unpleasant.

"My wife is very concerned."

Dr Edwards, however, insisted that there was no proof that the person was, in fact, a member of the party.

Apart from the recent comments of Mr Griffin, the party was also recently in the news following a BBC documentary in which a reporter secretly infiltrated the party.

One BNP member was secretly filmed boasting about having kicked and punched a man during riots in Bradford, Yorkshire, in 2001.

Another member spoke of wishing to attack mosques with a rocket launcher, and a third claimed to have put dog excrement through the letterbox of an Asian-owned takeaway food outlet.

The BNP claims that such reports are contrived by the media, and that the media wants to defame the party and its supporters.

Barrie Hudson