Pressure to ban National Front march

Birmingham does not want 'any kind of marches'

Police in Birmingham have applied for special powers to ban a National Front march in the city this weekend.

The city council's leader Albert Bore told the BBC that if the march took place on Saturday it would raise tensions within communities.

The people of Birmingham don't want there to be any marches whatsoever

Albert Bore
Birmingham City Council leader

Home Secretary David Blunkett will make the final decision this week on whether to approve a request by West Midlands police for the march to be banned.

The National Front is reported to have applied to stage a rally in the Stechford area of the city.

The police request comes after Mr Blunkett banned all marches through Bradford for three months following race riots.

Community unrest

Mr Bore told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "It is simply the threat of the National Front being on the streets of Birmingham which is giving rise to unrest within the community."

He said the city council did not want to see marches of any kind in the city, whether they were by the National Front or Anti-Nazi League.

"The people of Birmingham don't want there to be any marches whatsoever."

He said the National Front had been active in the city in the past few weeks but it had been a "low key presence."

And he said the city council had been monitoring the National Front and other extreme right wing parties.

They had not polled anywhere as near as many votes as they had in some Northern towns in recent local elections, he added.

"There hasn't been a division in the communities, as perhaps you have seen in Bradford, Oldham and Burnley.

"We want to keep it that way." he said.