MPs urge City Hall to stop pay of BNP aide
City Hall bosses were urged to withdraw taxpayer funding from a BNP official today after he suggested Ugandans threw "spears" at their enemies.
Labour MPs demanded action after the remarks by Simon Darby, the British National Party's deputy leader whose part-time job at the Greater London Authority is funded by Londoners.
Mr Darby, an aide to Assembly member Richard Barnbrook, also branded the Archbishop of York Dr John Sentamu "anti-British" and suggested he "deserved to be attacked".
The remarks came after the Archbishop criticised the BNP's leader Nick Griffin for claiming that black Britons were not British.
Like all City Hall employees, Mr Darby is required under the terms of his employment contract to "promote equality of opportunity".
Now Labour MPs are demanding that GLA chiefs take disciplinary action.
Mr Darby, who tops the BNP European candidate list in the West Midlands, wrote on his blog: "If I had travelled to Africa and insulted the indigenous people in the same arrogant, conceited and insensitive way that John Sentamu had I would have deserved to be attacked.
"If I went to Uganda and told them that they were all genetic mongrels and that anyone could be Ugandan I'd still be picking spears out of myself now."
Today, Labour MP for Dagenham, Jon Cruddas, told the Standard: "The GLA has got to act. The BNP are dragging the whole system into the gutter. If Darby's vicious cocktail of thinly-veiled racism and threats aren't in breach of the GLA code of conduct then clearly the code isn't worth the paper it's written on."
It follows criticism last month, when the Standard revealed Mr Darby attended a far-Right rally in Italy.
In November, Mr Darby said he did BNP work while earning his public salary. A spokesman for campaign group Searchlight said: "[Mr Darby] is allowed to swan around peddling his messages of hate whilst being effectively subsidised by hard-working Londoners."
