The British National Party loves Europe but hates the EU, said Nick Griffin in a special tribute message to the Polish Spitfire pilots who served in the Royal Air Force during World War II.

“We have deliberately used a Spitfire from the RAF No. 303 Polish Fighter Squadron as our backdrop in the ‘Battle of Britain’ road show for the European elections,” Mr Griffin said.

The BNP leader made the remarks while speaking to a Polish TV crew who came along to film the first road show event in Coventry last Saturday night. Mr Griffin went out of his way to point out to the TV crew that the image used on the backdrop was a Polish piloted Spitfire.

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“Whatever is happening in the EU today has nothing to do with the traditionally strong bonds between our countries,” Mr Griffin said.

“Not only do we have many Britons of Polish descent in the BNP — and some are even candidates — but the truth is that we love Europe, but hate what the EU is.”

Mr Griffin said that no self-respecting nation would allow its own working people to be overwhelmed by workers from another country.

“Poland would be very upset if a million Vietnamese came to that country, working for a bowl of rice a day and took a million jobs from Polish people,” Mr Griffin said.

“I have no doubt that the Polish government would also intervene if a million Brits descended on Poland and took jobs away from Polish people. The desire to protect your own workers has nothing to do with disliking any other nation, and the right to protect our own workforce is the same right which we grant freely to every other nation,” he said.

It was, he added, the madness of the EU which allowed globalists to exploit workers in all countries through the “free movement of people” ruse. This not only betrayed workers in nations such as Britain, where so-called “cheaper” labour saved arch-capitalists money, but also ultimately the imported workers’ native countries.

“Poland has suffered because of a skills drain of its people going to other European nations, thereby affecting its own national growth,” Mr Griffin said.

“Moves to protect individual nations’ workforces and economies should be a national priority, and will not affect relations on any level,” he said, expressing his thanks to the Polish TV crew for their nation’s contribution in World War II.

The Polish TV crew expressed their reciprocal thanks to Mr Griffin, with the lead cameraman remarking how nice it was to speak to an honest politician for the first time.