11 things Nick Griffin did that didn’t get him thrown out of the BNP

Former BNP leader Nick Griffin has been expelled from the party for “trying to cause disunity”. The far right politician, who joined the BNP in 1995 and became its leader within four years, was accused of harassing members of the party and its staff.

Here are some other things Griffin, 55, did in that time which did not lead him to be thrown out of the BNP.

1. Being convicted of incitement to cause racial hatred in 1998.

He was convicted of violating section 19 of the Public Order Act 1986 in relation to “material denying the holocaust”.

2. Calling the Holocaust a “Holohaux” in 1997.

3. Calling gay people “repulsive” in 1999.

This was in the wake of the a Neo-Nazi bombing the Admiral Duncan gay pub in Soho. "The TV footage of dozens of gay demonstrators flaunting their perversions in front of the world's journalists showed just why so many ordinary people find these creatures so repulsive," he wrote in June 1999.

4. Being secretly filmed telling a crowd Islam was a “wicked, vicious faith” in 2004 - something which sparked a police investigation.

5. Being put on trial for inciting racial hatred in 2006 over that incident.

6. Failing to win any electoral support for the BNP.

In this year’s European elections the BNP’s vote went back to the level it was at 15 years ago. Griffin also lost his seat in the European Parliament.

7. Being an organiser for the National Front.

8. Meeting with David Duke, the former leader of the KKK, in 2009.

9. Visiting Libya at Col Gaddafi’s expense in 1988.

This was to try to secure funding for the National Front.

10. He also went on a state sponsored trip to Syria in 2013, where he claimed life there was continuing as "normal" amid a civil war which has killed hundreds of thousands of people.

"Crossed border into Syria yesterday," he tweeted. "Now in Damascus, which is busy, a modern, bustling city. Security rather like Belfast in Troubles." The BNP later claimed his visit had helped prevent war in Syria.

11. Almost causing a grooming trial to collapse in 2012.

Griffin tweeted that seven men had been convicted for playing a part in a child sex ring in Rochdale before the jury had officially returned a verdict. Defence lawyers called on the judge to discharge the jury and lawyers argued the impartiality of the jury may have been compromised.