The British National Party could be on Question Time up to once a year if it maintains its current level of support, the BBC Director-General said yesterday.

Mark Thompson said that the party’s showing in the European elections this year, where it gained a 6 per cent share of the vote and two MEPs, meant that the corporation had no choice but to include it in some editions of its political panel show. Support for the party has since fallen back to 2 to 3 per cent.

The decision to invite the BNP’s leader, Nick Griffin, on to last week’s show — his first Question Time appearance — caused outrage. At least 500 protesters gathered outside Television Centre in West London as Mr Griffin arrived.

Giving evidence to the House of Lords Communications Committee, Mr Thompson admitted that it was the BBC that had approached the BNP, adding that the corporation had been considering the invitation for “months and years”.

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“The question of who should appear on programmes is not something which is done purely on an ad hoc basis. We have been asking ourselves fairly continuously about whether we have got the representation of minor parties correct,” he said. It was his decision to extend an invitation to Mr Griffin, and because Parliament had not banned the BNP it was not appropriate for him to deny it access.

Under a barrage of questions from Lord Fowler, the committee chairman, Mr Thompson said that the BBC might invite Mr Griffin on to other political programmes, such as Any Questions on Radio 4. “He could appear on any of the programmes that deal with UK politics.”

He said that he could not give a view on whether the show had been a success, as he may have to adjudicate on complaints made by the public, which he said numbered in the low hundreds. Ofcom, the broadcasting regulator, has also received nearly 300 complaints about the programme but it will not investigate.

More than eight million people watched last week’s Question Time, which normally attracts two million to three million viewers. Mr Thompson denied that Mr Griffin’s appearance was about boosting ratings.

Mr Griffin said yesterday that his appearance on the show had boosted support for the BNP, with 25,000 people registering an interest in joining. In a phone-in on the Scottish radio station L107, he also renewed his attack on senior army officers who had accused the BNP of hijacking veterans’ charities and tarnishing the military. “They should do something useful instead of meddling in politics,” he said. Embarrassingly for the SNP, he also backed calls for a vote on Scottish independence.

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