BNP conference comes to Blackpool

The British National Party is holding a two-day conference at a hotel in the Lancashire resort of Blackpool.

About 600 BNP members are expected to attend the event, at the New Kimberley Hotel on the New South Promenade.

Blackpool Council leader Roy Fisher has said the group are not welcome in the town, which is used to hosting party conferences.

BNP organiser Roy Goodwin said the party was just as entitled to hold a conference there as anyone else.

He denied the party chose Blackpool as a destination because of the strong support for the group in the region.

"It wasn't to do with the support, it was to do with the location," he said.

"People are able to come here from the North, and the South.

"Blackpool Council's not very happy about that, but we're entitled to hold a conference wherever we like, it's as simple as that."

Unite Against Fascism, a party set up to challenge the BNP, has organised a rally in Blackpool on Saturday.

Ketlan Ossowski, from the party, said: "We'll go on a mass leaflet of Blackpool town centre, and we will hold a demonstration outside."

The BNP has more than 40 council seats and is the second-biggest group on Barking and Dagenham Council in east London.

BBC News
Sunday, 26 November 2006