Martin Wingfield says the denial of priveileges to MEPs visiting parliament is a sledgehammer used to crack the BNP nut

Seventy Conservative, Labour, Liberal Democrat, UKIP and Green MEPs will have their right of access to the House of Commons withdrawn as from this evening because of a motion put forward by the Leader of the House, Harriet Harman.

The MEPs will no doubt feel a little aggrieved because they appear to be the government’s “acceptable casualties” in its latest attack on the British National Party.

The new rules have been brought in solely to deny Nick Griffin and Andrew Brons access to Westminster. They are Britain’s two MEPs representing the British National Party in the Euro constituencies of the North West of England and Yorkshire and the Humber.

The Labour Party and the British National Party are battling for the hearts and minds of what remains of Britain’s working class. Gordon Brown and his government know that it’s vital to keep the lid on the latent support for the BNP that exists amongst the ranks of its supporters, if it is to hang on to many vulnerable seats at the General Election.

Labour can’t allow the British National Party to appear as a viable alternative to its disenchanted traditional voters, so it must be denied any trappings of success. If that means using a sledgehammer to crack a nut and denying 70 all-party MEPs access to the House of Commons, just to keep the two BNP MEPs out, then so be it.

But Labour’s victory in Westminster might be a hollow one. Next Thursday Nick Griffin is a guest on the BBC’s Question Time programme where the BNP chairman will be addressing his biggest audience to date. To many viewers his appearance might seem that the British National Party’s has finally arrived into the mainstream of British politics

Martin Wingfield is Communications Officer to Nick Griffin MEP