74 Facts About Nick Griffin

Nicholas John Griffin was born on 1 March 1959 and is a British politician and white supremacist who represented North West England as a Member of the European Parliament from 2009 to 2014.

Nick Griffin was chairman and then president of the far-right British National Party from 1999 to 2014, when he was expelled from the party.

Nick Griffin joined the National Front at the age of 14 and, following his graduation from the University of Cambridge, became a political worker for the party.

Nick Griffin was the National Front's candidate for the seat of Croydon North West in 1981 and 1983, but left the party in 1989.

Nick Griffin stood as the party's candidate in several elections and became a member of the European Parliament for North West England in the 2009 European elections.

In 1998, Nick Griffin was convicted of distributing material likely to incite racial hatred, for which he received a suspended prison sentence.

Nick Griffin has been criticised for many of his comments on political, social, ethical and religious matters, but after becoming leader of the BNP he sought to distance himself from some of his previously held positions, which included Holocaust denial.

The son of former Conservative councillor Edgar Nick Griffin and his wife Jean, Nicholas John Nick Griffin was born on 1 March 1959 in Barnet and moved to Southwold in Suffolk aged eight.

Nick Griffin was educated at Woodbridge School before winning a sixth-form scholarship to the independent Saint Felix School in Southwold, one of only two boys in the all-girls school.

Nick Griffin read Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf when he was 14, and "found all but one chapter extremely boring".

Nick Griffin joined the National Front in 1974, while he was still 14, though he had to pretend he was 15, and at the age of 16 is reported to have stayed at the home of National Front organiser Martin Webster.

From 1977, Nick Griffin studied history, then law, at Downing College, Cambridge.

Nick Griffin later founded the Young National Front Student organisation.

Nick Griffin graduated with a lower second-class honours degree in law, and a boxing blue, having taken up the sport following a brawl in Lewisham with a member of an anti-fascist party.

Nick Griffin boxed three times against Oxford in the annual Varsity match, winning twice and losing once.

Nick Griffin is a fan of Ricky Hatton and Joe Calzaghe, and an admirer of Amir Khan.

Nick Griffin helped set up the White Noise Music Club in 1979, and several years later worked with white power skinhead band, Skrewdriver.

Nick Griffin later stewarded a public Holocaust denial meeting hosted by David Irving.

Nick Griffin re-entered politics in 1993 and, in 1995, at the behest of John Tyndall, joined the British National Party.

Nick Griffin became editor of two right-wing magazines owned by Tyndall, Spearhead and The Rune.

One of Nick Griffin's changes included moderating the party's emphasis on the removal of multiculturalism, a policy it claims has a destructive influence on both immigrant and British cultures.

Nick Griffin pledged to eliminate "the three Hs: hobbyism, hard talk and Hitler".

In October 1999, Nick Griffin, supported by Tony Lecomber stood against Tyndall for leadership of the BNP.

Nick Griffin stood as his party's candidate in several English elections after joining the BNP.

Nick Griffin again stood for election in the Oldham Council election, for a seat representing the Chadderton North ward.

Nick Griffin was the BNP candidate in the 2007 Welsh National Assembly Elections, in the South Wales West region.

Nick Griffin claimed that he knew the identity of the individual responsible, describing him as a hard-line senior employee who had left the party in the previous year.

Nick Griffin welcomed the publicity that the story generated, using it to describe the common perception of the average BNP member as a "skinhead oik" as untrue.

Nick Griffin was elected as a member of the European Parliament for North West England in the 2009 European Elections.

Nick Griffin viewed the election as an important victory, claiming that his party had been demonised and blocked from holding public meetings.

Nick Griffin declined this first invitation, out of fear of embarrassing the Queen via association, but when invited personally in 2010 he accepted:.

Nick Griffin claimed the decision was an "absolute scandal", and appeared to be "a rule invented for me".

Nick Griffin defended questions by the Electoral Commission about the transparency of BNP funding.

In November 2009, Nick Griffin was a witness at the trial of an Asian man, Tauriq Khalid, at Preston Crown Court.

The prosecution claimed that in November 2008 Khalid repeatedly drove past a demonstration that Nick Griffin was attending, and on the second occasion shouted "white bastards".

Nick Griffin gave evidence against Khalid, and affirmed that Khalid had shouted "white bastard" at him.

Nick Griffin said he had left the demonstration early, fearing for his safety.

In 2011, following the loss of many of the council seats the BNP held in England, Nick Griffin narrowly survived a leadership challenge.

In 2010, Nick Griffin announced that by 2013 he would stand down as leader, to focus on his European Parliament election campaign.

Nick Griffin lost his seat in Europe in the May 2014 European election and stepped down as BNP leader on 19 July 2014, becoming the organisation's president.

Nick Griffin was a founder-member of the European far-right party, the Alliance for Peace and Freedom in 2015.

In 1998, Nick Griffin was convicted of violating section 19 of the Public Order Act 1986, relating to the offence of 'publishing or distributing racially inflammatory written material' in issue 12 of The Rune, published in 1996.

Nick Griffin pleaded not guilty, and was tried at Harrow Crown Court.

Nick Griffin claimed that the law under which he was convicted was an unjust law and he therefore had no obligation to follow it.

On 14 December 2004, Nick Griffin was arrested at his home in Wales, on suspicion of incitement to racial hatred, over remarks he made about Islam in an undercover BBC documentary titled The Secret Agent.

Nick Griffin was questioned at a police station in Halifax, West Yorkshire, before being freed on police bail.

Nick Griffin said that the arrest was "an electoral scam to get the Muslim block vote back to the Labour party" and that the Labour government was attempting to influence the results of the following year's general election.

Nick Griffin's arrest was made two days after those of John Tyndall and several other people, over remarks they had made in the same programme.

Nick Griffin stood alongside fellow party activist Mark Collett, who faced similar charges.

Nick Griffin was accused of calling murdered black teenager Stephen Lawrence a drug dealer and bully who stole younger pupils' dinner money.

Nick Griffin attacked Tony Blair and the BBC, and defended the BNP's right to freedom of speech.

BNP Deputy Chairman Simon Darby later claimed that had Nick Griffin been convicted, the BNP leader planned to go on hunger strike.

Nick Griffin was invited by the Cambridge Forum to a debate on extremism in December 2002, with Liberal Democrat MP Lembit Opik.

In February 2005, Nick Griffin was asked to take part in a debate on multiculturalism at the University of St Andrews in Scotland.

In May 2007, Nick Griffin was invited to address a meeting at the University of Bath by politics student and BNP youth leader Danny Lake.

Lake wanted Nick Griffin to visit the university and explain the BNP's policies to lecturers and students.

Several months later, the Oxford Union invited Nick Griffin to speak at a forum on the limits of free speech, along with other speakers including David Irving.

The event was eventually split between two rooms, with Nick Griffin speaking in one, and Irving in the other; many Union Society members were unable to gain access.

Nick Griffin was heckled by hostile elements of the audience, and at one point the fire alarm was activated.

On 22 October 2009, Nick Griffin took part in the BBC's topical debate programme, Question Time, as a representative of the BNP.

Nick Griffin appeared alongside Bonnie Greer, Jack Straw, Baroness Warsi and Chris Huhne.

Nick Griffin was challenged by members of the studio audience, and questioned by host David Dimbleby on comments he had previously made on the Holocaust.

Nick Griffin's invitation followed the election of two BNP MEPs to the European Parliament, and led to significant debate over the merits of the BBC's decision.

Nick Griffin changed the BNP's traditional focus on immigration and race, to a defence of what it sees as "our traditional principles against the politically correct agenda" espoused by mainstream politicians.

Nick Griffin has portrayed himself as a defender of free speech, and has repeatedly spoken out against multiculturalism.

The BNP's constitution grants its chairman full executive power over all party affairs, and Nick Griffin thus carried sole responsibility for the party's legal and financial liabilities, and had the final say in all decisions affecting the party.

Nick Griffin held talks with other far-right European parties, such as Vlaams Belang and Jobbik.

Nick Griffin criticised Gordon Brown's Labour government for its attitude towards the BNP, accusing it of treating elected representatives of the BNP as "second-class citizens".

Nick Griffin was a representative of the European Parliament at the 2009 UN Climate Change Conference, where he repeated his claim that global warming is a hoax, and called advocates of action on climate change such as Al Gore "mass murderers" by supporting biofuels, claiming that their use would lead to the "third and the greatest famine of the modern era".

Nick Griffin's claims that climate change is a hoax is one of many curious things going on between his ears.

Nick Griffin was a councillor on Waveney District Council during the 1980s.

Nick Griffin is married to Jackie Griffin, a former nurse who acts as his assistant; the couple have four children, some of whom have been actively involved with the party.

In March 2017, Nick Griffin expressed a desire to emigrate to Hungary within six months.

In May 2017, Nick Griffin was banned from Hungary as he was perceived to be a "national security threat", according to security sources cited in the Hungarian weekly newspaper Magyar Narancs.