Nick Griffin had to be smuggled in and out of the BBC via a back entrance last night after about 25 anti-fascist protesters broke into Television Centre cheered on by hundreds more who were blocking the road outside.

About 600 demonstrators expressed their disgust as the BNP leader was ushered towards BBC Studio Six surrounded by bodyguards for the recording of Question Time.

His chaotic arrival at the entrance on Frithville Gardens was delayed because his car had to struggle through the crowd. “It seems the police do not have this mob under control,” Mr Griffin said.

An initially peaceful demonstration soured late in the afternoon when police responded to a breach of security by stiffening their cordons and physically restraining protesters. Wooden poles were torn from placards and hurled into the four-deep line of officers.

Scotland Yard said that six arrests were made at the protest, two for violent disorder, one for a public order offence, one for actual bodily harm and one for assault on a police officer. The sixth was of a person wanted on warrant.

One of those held was Martin Smith, 43, a national officer with the Unite Against Fascism pressure group. Witnesses claimed that he was arrested while encouraging protesters to block the main road outside Television Centre.

As the demonstration became more heated, Heathcote Rughven, 19, a drama student, said that he had been struck on the head with a police baton. With blood running down his back from an inch-long cut on the back of his head, he said: “I didn’t realise for a while until the policeman said ‘Your head is bleeding’. The police were being the more aggressive of the two parties. A few people got hit. I feel it was undeserved because we were just chanting and being peaceful and the police charged.”

Between 25 and 30 protesters broke off from the main demonstration and charged the BBC’s main entrance gate as a vehicle was allowed through.

Backed by chants of “BBC, shame on you” and “Nazi scum off the streets” the small gang, believed to be predominantly from Unite Against Fascism, slipped through security and ran on to BBC property.

Rachel Parish, 20, a philosophy student, made it through the security barrier but was among around ten protesters who were stopped by officers in the car park. “The BBC should be ashamed. How can you give a platform to Nazis?” she asked.

Dozens more demonstrators got as far as the stage door in the reception area to the studios before their way was blocked.

Jennifer, one of the protesters to be dragged from the building, said that they chanted the name of Ian Tomlinson, who died during the G20 protests, as they tried to resist the police. “More than 20 of us locked arms inside the foyer as police and security guards tried to push us out,” she said.

“We started to yell Ian Tomlinson’s name to remind them what police brutality could lead to.”

Paramedics treated three police and three protesters for minor injuries.

After removing protesters from the building, about 20 police stood guard at the main entrance gate and officers escorted in members of the Question Time audience once their passports had been inspected.

The demonstrators were addressed by Jeremy Corbyn, the Labour MP for Islington North. “No one should be sharing a platform with an avowed racist and an avowed fascist,” he said. “We’re not prepared to give such people a platform and give them the veneer of democracy they so desperately crave.”

While there were apparently very few BNP supporters in the crowd, one passer-by said that the protest was counter-productive and insisted that it had been right to invite Mr Griffin on to the show. “The same people shouting against the BNP are the ones who say they stand up for freedom of speech and it seems a bit contradictory,” said Tom Draper, 23, a travel agent. He said he hoped that Mr Griffin would be exposed on the show.

“The panel will hopefully find many holes in his argument and that will make people realise that he’s just a wannabe intellectual,” he said.

Among the protesters was Monty Goldman, 78, of Hackney, whose father, Sidney, marched against Oswald Mosley’s Blackshirts in East London in 1936.

“This party, the BNP, is an absolute disgrace,” he said, describing Mr Griffin as a Nazi and a Holocaust denier. “They wouldn’t stand for him if he was in Austria; they would have sent him to prison like the historian David Irving,” he said.

As protesters harangued security officials at the BBC gates, the rest of the staff inside Television Centre were warned to stay in their offices, wear their identification prominently and avoid the main entrance. An e-mail to staff read: “We are aware that protesters have breached security at Television Centre. They are being evicted. All studios are secure.”

The recording of Question Time was delayed by the protests. “The earlier incident was dealt with quickly by the police and security staff and the small number of protesters involved were escorted promptly from the building,” Mark Byford, the BBC deputy director-general, said.

The recording finished at about 8.30pm and demonstrators and riot police moved to the side entrance from which Mr Griffin was expected to leave. He departed without incident and the crowd dwindled to about 200 and Wood Lane was reopened.

David Blunkett, the former Home Secretary, criticised the BBC News’s own reporting of the protest. “To spend the first ten minutes of the Six O’Clock News covering their own decision and the consequences of putting the leader of the BNP on Question Time was a total distortion of news priority and a deliberate promotion of their own publicity-seeking decision,” he said.

“The only people who have benefited from this row are the BNP and the BBC’s Question Time ratings. They really do need to examine their own consciences and the BBC Trust needs to examine the value of its own existence.”

But one member of the audience, Josh Gordon, 21, a student at Imperial College, supported having Mr Griffin on the show. “It’s all about freedom of speech. By having him here I know no one else is being censored,” he said.

Audience members were led out in groups of 20 because of the security situation, he added.

Antonia Senior, page 40 Letters, page 43

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