THE GUARDIAN: Mayor urges London assembly to rescind invitation to far-right colleague of Nick Griffin to spare monarch embarrassment
The London mayor, Boris Johnson, today intervened to prevent the BNP leader, Nick Griffin, from attending a garden party hosted by the Queen.
Johnson wrote to the London assembly chair, Darren Johnson, urging him to rescind the BNP assembly member Richard Barnbrook's invitation to the Buckingham Palace event in June.
The mayor accused the far-right party of trying to turn the garden party in to a "political stunt".
Johnson's intervention came after it emerged that Barnbrook said he intended to take Griffin to the party as his guest.
Speaking at a routine assembly session with the mayor, the assembly chair said members were "extremely concerned" that the BNP was seeking to turn a social event into a political stunt.
He confirmed he would take the matter to the chief executive to request that Barnbrook's invitation be withdrawn unless he had a "more acceptable guest" to take along. >>> Hélène Mulholland, Matthew Taylor and Rachel Williams | Thursday, May 21, 2009
