UPDATE: Anti-BNP message from Labour...

The British National Party has come under fire from Labour general election candidates.

Darren Jones, who is standing for Labour in Torridge and West Devon, told me: “There’s a fine line between the views of these people and the parallels between the rise of Nazi Germany and I don’t want to sound melodramatic, but it’s true.

“Britain has a proud tradition of being welcoming to diverse populations.”

And Mark Cann, Labour’s candidate in North Devon, said: “Classically, extremist parties have sought to prosper at times of great economic uncertainty, often peddling simplistic and racist views about how we can solve our problems, which I totally reject.

“The Labour Party role is to counter that and to talk to the people who are those on whom the BNP campaign, often the white working class.

"Labour is still the party that represents the ordinary person in this country and don’t be misled.”

Gary Marshall, the BNP general election candidate for North Devon, admitted his party had a racist history but he claimed it had changed and he denied he was a racist or a fascist.

He said: “To say I’m a Nazi, that I support Nazi ideology, or anything stupid like that, I find incredibly offensive.”

The BNP, which believes there is an “indigenous” white British race, has called for a “British resistance” and claims there has been an “overwhelming extinguishing of Britain and British identity under a tsunami of immigration”.

The BNP also believes in corporal punishment, the death penalty, chain gangs, paying immigrants to go back to their country of origin, withdrawing from the EU, and stopping all foreign aid.