Yesterday, only two days before Britain goes to the polls, the BNP’s website disappeared for a while and was replaced by this message from its now ex-webmaster, Simon Bennett:

The services to this website have been suspended.

It is with regret that I have been forced to pull this website due to several attempts of theft today with regards to design work and content owned by myself.

It is no secret that I have been in dispute with some elements of the management of the party for sometime now, but had hoped to resolve these issues amicably and AFTER the elections.

However, due to several attempts to steal my work today and combined with the recent deliberate copyright infringement I feel I have been left with no alternative to this action and feel wholly justified in doing so.

The background of my dispute with the party can be read here: (link to Bennett’s personal website)

According to Lancaster Unity, who have the full details of this latest outbreak of infighting in the BNP’s ranks, Bennett briefly pulled the plug on the BNP’s website as a result of a serious dispute with Nick Griffin and Jim Dowson – profiled here by Searchlight – that stemmed from the party’s recent, unauthorised use of Unilever’s Marmire logo in the web version of its general election broadcast.

To cut a very long story short, Bennett claims that he was left to face the music when this publicity stunt blew up in the party’s face, after Unilever sent in its lawyers to obtain an injunction against the BNP for copyright infringement, despite having been opposed to the use of the logo from the outset.

As in invariably the case when infighting in the BNP hits the public domain, Bennett’s account of his falling out with Griffin and Dowson alleges that he was threatened with violence after pulling the plug on the BNP’s website, which he claims to have reinstated only after receiving requests from ordinary party members, who he describes as ‘decent people’.

Bennett’s account also alludes to alleged inregularities in the party’s finances, another common feature of any public falling out with Griffin, although one that may gain rather more traction on this occasion as the party in currently being being investigated by the Electoral Commission after its own auditors indicated that they could not certify the accuracy of its more recent set of published accounts.

Reader comments

1. Sheryl Odlum

   RT @libcon: BNP Webmaster quits over 'Marmite video' dispute http://bit.ly/aIP2VK

2. Sheryl Odlum

   RT @libcon BNP Webmaster quits over 'Marmite video' dispute http://bit.ly/aIP2VK #BNPwatch #ukelection

3. Unity

   @tom_watson @Kevin_Maguire @johnprescott – Outbreak of BNP infighting on eve of election – http://bit.ly/aIP2VK

4. Simon Dickson

   Looks like the BNP's web operation is imploding. WordPress not implicated, though. http://is.gd/bUSTy

5. Edmund Harriss

   A rare nice thing about extremists: they struggle to work together: http://bit.ly/buRJo8 (BNP website) #ge10

6. Jason Grant

   RT @simond: Looks like the BNP's web operation is imploding. http://is.gd/bUSTy

7. Sheryl Odlum

   RT @libcon BNP Webmaster quits over 'Marmite video' dispute http://bit.ly/aIP2VK #BNPwatch #ukelection

8. Liberal Conspiracy

   BNP Webmaster quits over 'Marmite video' dispute http://bit.ly/aIP2VK

9. Unity

   RT @libcon: BNP Webmaster quits over 'Marmite video' dispute http://bit.ly/aIP2VK – more of the usual BNP infighting

10. Noxi

    BNP Webmaster quits over ‘Marmite video’ dispute | Liberal Conspiracy » http://ow.ly/1HbLf british national party nick griffin

11. Noxi

    BNP Webmaster quits over ‘Marmite video’ dispute | Liberal Conspiracy » http://ow.ly/1HbK1 british national party nick griffin

12. Simon Dickson

    Looks like the BNP website has switched from WordPress (strictly, BuddyPress) to Drupal in the wake of http://bit.ly/bLM3nB