BNP leader Nick Griffin MEP has been accused of “misrepresenting the truth” about squaddies not being allowed to vote in the up-coming General Election.
In a recent video to party members Griffin told activists how he met with two British soldiers who had recently served in Afghanistan and were angry at how their friends “aren’t going to be allowed to vote.” He goes on to say:
“The British government have set up polling stations in places like Manchester so that Iraqis living here at taxpayers expense can vote in Iraqi elections. But they’ve organised it so that our soldiers serving in Afghanistan, serving this country aren’t allowed to vote in our elections – it’s a disgrace.”
This is cynical politics at its lowest.
Nothing British has spoken to an MOD spokesman, who denied Griffin’s claims and told us that he was “misrepresenting the truth”. The MOD said:
“We have had successful campaigns getting Service voters to register and we are working closely with the Ministry of Justice to make suitable provisions for Service personnel in Afghanistan, including fast tracking postal voting forms. Due to operational priorities, no plan we can put in place to fast-track postal voting forms will be infallible but personnel still have the option of voting by proxy and this is what we would recommend them to do.”
This is not the first time that Griffin has twisted facts for political purposes. Back in October 2009, during our Stolen Valour campaign, he told Jon Snow on Channel 4 news that he wore a poppy in his lapel because wounded soldiers in Selly Oak Hospital were forced to pay to watch TV. But when we spoke to the hospital’s staff NB was informed that service personnel’s costs were covered by the MOD.
Griffin’s exploitation of the growing voter scepticism over the war in Afghanistan, anger over kit shortages, and affection towards the British Armed Forces to push through his hate-filled and divisive brand politics with an anti-war twist is morally reprehensible.
Maurice Cousins
