The British National Party is building an alliance with radical anti-abortion activists in an attempt to reach out to Catholics and secure their votes in future elections.Nick Griffin, the BNP leader, and one of his close deputies confirmed yesterday that they held private talks last week with the UK co-ordinator of Life League, an anti-abortion lobby group. Griffin and Mark Collet spent two days with James Dowson, an Ulster-based businessman and the main force behind Life League.
The meeting has outraged other anti-abortion campaigners. A number of them, who wanted to remain anonymous, contacted The Observer this weekend. One, who described himself as a 'mainstream anti-abortion and anti-racist', condemned the BNP.
Griffin claimed that amplifying the party's 'pro-life' policies would win it new votes among Catholics. 'There used to be a perception in Northern Ireland and Scotland that we were an Orange party. This is not so,' he said. The BNP, like Dowson, wanted to reach across the sectarian divide.
'If there is any plus for us in meeting Life League and highlighting our opposition to abortion, it is that it chimes with the feelings of many working-class Scottish Catholics,' the BNP leader said.
His main candidate in Glasgow would be stressing the BNP's opposition to abortion in the forthcoming Scottish elections.
Dowson said the league had a 'moral duty to engage with anyone who will listen in order to promote our pro-life agenda'.
Matthew Collins of Searchlight, the anti-fascist magazine, said it was odd that the BNP 'welcomed Holocaust deniers' yet believed in the 'right to life of the unborn'.
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