BNP leader Nick Griffin has insisted he is "not a Nazi¹" during his first appearance on the BBC's Question Time.

法国巴黎银行领袖Nick Griffin第一次出席BBC的质询时间节目时坚持他“不是纳粹分子”。

The political discussion programme was recorded as anti-fascist campaigners protested outside Television Centre.

Mr Griffin was booed（作嘘声） at the start of the recording² and accused of trying to "poison politics" as he was attacked by fellow panellists（专题讨论参加者） and the audience.

He said he had been "demonised" and repeatedly denied saying things which have been attributed to him.

The BBC has defended the invitation to the leader of the anti-immigration party to appear on the programme, saying it had a duty to be impartial³（公正的）.

During the show the panel covered topics including whether it was fair for the BNP to "hijack⁴" images of Winston Churchill, whether immigration policy had fuelled the BNP's popularity and whether Mr Griffin's appearance was an early Christmas present for the party.

Justice Secretary Jack⁵ Straw said what distinguished⁶ the BNP from other parties was that other parties "have a moral compass", adding: "Nazism⁸ didn't and neither I'm afraid does the BNP."

Mr Griffin, who said his father had been in the RAF during World War II, said he had been "relentlessly⁹（无情地，残酷地） attacked and demonised... I am not a Nazi and never have been".

Mr Griffin repeatedly denied he had said many of the things he had been quoted as saying including a quote attributed to him in the Mail on Sunday that Adolf Hitler went "a bit too far".

He claimed his efforts to change the BNP meant he was unpopular with the far right. "There are Nazis⁷ in Britain and they loathe¹⁰（厌恶，憎恨） me," he said.

He admitted sharing a platform with former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke - but claimed he had been trying to win over "youngsters" Duke was trying to "lead astray（迷途地，入歧途地）".

'Not racist¹¹'

And, asked about a quote attributed to him in which he equated¹² six million deaths in the Holocaust¹³ with the flat earth theory he replied that "European law" stopped him explaining.

"I can't tell you why I used to say those things anymore than I can tell you why I have changed my mind," he said.

Mr Straw replied: "There is not law here that stops you explaining yourself."

The justice secretary said when anybody put a specific quotation¹⁴ to Mr Griffin he tried to "wriggle¹⁵（蠕动，蜿蜒前进） out of it".

Conservative frontbencher Baroness¹⁶ Warsi said Mr Griffin was "a thoroughly¹⁷ deceptive¹⁸ man".

Asked whether immigration policy had fuelled the BNP, Mr Straw said he did not think it had and said he thought the BNP had been boosted by discontent with the main parties over issues like expenses.

But Baroness Warsi said politicians had a responsibility to take on the BNP on the issue of immigration: "Many people who vote for the BNP are not racist and therefore what we have to do is go out and say to these people as mainstream¹⁹ political parties we are prepared to listen."

Mr Griffin blamed the "political elite²⁰" for imposing²¹ "an enormous multicultural²² experiment on the British people".