A former British National Party candidate denied yesterday that he had planned to assassinate Tony Blair.

Robert Cottage, 49, agreed that he had stockpiled dangerous chemicals at his home in Colne, Lancashire, but said that he feared that the country was descending into civil war.

When police searched the house in September last year they found large quantities of ammonia, hydrogen peroxide, hydrochloric acid and ball bearings. They also retrieved a 300-page copy of The Anarchist’s Cook Book, detailing how to make explosives, which had been downloaded on to a computer.

But Mr Cottage, who has stood unsuccessfully in three local elections as a BNP candidate, told a jury at Manchester Crown Court that he denied the prosecution’s claim that he intended to make a bomb.

Instead, he insisted that he had never intended to create anything bigger than a “very large banger with a flash effect” which he would detonate to scare off would-be attackers from his property.

Mr Cottage, who described immigration as a luxury the country could ill afford, believed that civil strife had become inevitable. He agreed that he had acquired air pistols and crossbows.

“Alistair Webster QC, for the defence, asked about a diary entry which read: “The easiest way to defend the country is to assassinate Tony Blair and if Prescott takes over shoot that f***** as well”. Mr Cottage said: “I can only say it was written down in a fit of pique.”

Mr Webster asked Mr Cottage whether he had ever harboured plans to sneak up on the Prime Minister with an air pistol and assassinate him. “No,” he replied.

Mr Cottage admits a charge of possessing explosives but denies conspiracy to cause an explosion. A second man, David Jackson, 62, a dentist, of Nelson, Lancashire, denies possession of explosives and conspiracy to cause an explosion.

The trial continues.

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