Nick Griffin, the BNP leader. Photograph: Leon Neal/AFP/Getty Images


The British National party's membership rules were declared illegal today, despite a party decision last month to remove whites-only provisions from its constitution.

Judge Paul Collins ruled that the party was "likely to commit unlawful acts of discrimination within the Race Relations Act". The decision follows weeks of wrangling over the legality of the far-right party's membership criteria as defined in its constitution.

The BNP agreed last year to remove its whites-only policy following a legal challenge by the government's Equalities and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) under race relations laws. BNP rules had stipulated that only "indigenous caucasians" and people from ethnic groups "emanating from that race" could join.

After several months of delay BNP members voted at an extraordinary general meeting a month ago to scrap the clause and replace the party's constitution.

But the EHRC decided to challenge the new document on the grounds that it still amounted to indirect racism.

The new constitution, which has yet to be published, requires would-be members to agree that they are "implacably opposed to the promotion, by any means, of integration or assimilation" that affected the UK's indigenous white population. Another clause expresses opposition to mixed-race marriages.

"It would be jolly difficult for a mixed-race person to join the BNP without effectively denying themselves," Robin Allen QC, representing the EHRC, told a hearing on Tuesday.

The BNP rejected this. "This party has a particular policy," said Gwynn Price Rowlands, representing the party. "It's a matter for the applicant to decide whether they want to join."

The BNP had a waiting list of non-white people wanting to join, he said.

The hearing was told that applicants under the new party rules would be subject to a two-hour home visit by two BNP officials.

That could operate as a form of indirect discrimination, said Allen. "One way the provisions could operate would be to intimidate someone who wanted to join the party.

"Of course, it could simply be a greeting."

BNP critics argue the party has no genuine interest in recruiting non-white members and is merely doing the minimum to avoid legal action and potentially crippling court costs.

An internal BNP memo seen by the Guardian this week told members that the party had not "gone soft".

"We don't expect any more than a handful of people of ethnic minority origin to apply to join the party nationally, and we will not let this deflect us from our political objectives of saving Britain and restoring the primacy of the indigenous British people," the memo said.