The egg white supremacists: BNP leader shellshocked after attack

ANTI-FASCIST groups have pledged to step up their attacks on the British National Party after leader Nick Griffin, newly elected to the European Parliament, was pelted with eggs and forced to abandon a press conference.

Shouting "Off our streets, Nazi scum", demonstrators yesterday chased Mr Griffin and party colleague Andrew Brons away from College Green in front of parliament, down the street to waiting cars.

Flanked by bodyguards, the pair – who on Monday won the party's first ever European seats – were forced to run a gauntlet of signs reading "Stop the Fascist BNP", waved by protesters mobilised by Unite Against Fascism (UAF).

Demonstrators – hastily mobilised by text, e-mail and Twitter – hammered on the tops of the departing cars with their placards and cheered as they saw the politicians off.

Afterwards, Mr Griffin said he was outraged that he had not been able to hold the news conference.

"It's very, very wrong," he said. "It's a very sad day for British democracy. People should be entitled to hear what we have to say and to hear journalists question us robustly."

He described protesters as "a mob of students, lecturers, probably a few civil service parasites ... hardcore activists and supporters primarily of the Labour Party".

Two people were taken to hospital after the demonstration and police said they were investigating allegations of common assault and a road collision.

UAF claimed that Mr Griffin's security guards punched and kicked demonstrators in scuffles as they escorted him away.

Last night a UAF spokesman told The Scotsman:

"We are calling on people to organise protests whenever we hear they are speaking or appearing, to make it clear the BNP is not an acceptable part of society."

Anti-fascist groups have vowed to redouble their efforts after the BNP won more than 940,000 votes in last week's European elections, enough to give the party its first representatives in Brussels under a proportional representation system.

Campaigners are further alarmed that Mr Griffin and Mr Brons could earn their party a "fighting fund" of more than £4 million in salary, expenses and perks.

With the help of trade unions, the UAF established a political arm in Scotland in May, after polls in England suggested the BNP could win several seats in the European elections.

Charlotte Ahmed, the interim secretary, told The Scotsman last night that Mr Griffin can also expect to be besieged by protesters every time he steps foot north of the Border. She said: "If Nick Griffin attempts to bolster his organisation in Scotland, we will be there – but he is hard to follow because he books into venues under pseudonyms.

"What we have got to remember is that during the same week we commemorated the D-Day landings, fascists in Britain got a European seat for the first time."