Police
officers will be sacked if they are found to be members of the British National
Party (BNP).
The
Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo) has banned any officer or civilian
member of police staff in England and Wales from joining the far-right BNP.
Acpo
president Chris Fox said he was personally "extremely pleased" by the
plans.
"Under
this policy, no member of the police service, whether police officer or police
staff, may be a member of an organisation whose constitution, aims, objectives
or pronouncements contradict the general duty to promote race equality,"
Fox said.
"This
specifically includes the BNP and we anticipate that non-compliance will result
in dismissal,” he added.
The
BNP said the move was a politically-motivated ‘witch hunt’, and compared it to
democratic suppression in the former Soviet Union.