Nick Griffin, the British National Party leader, revealed during a visit to Hamilton yesterday that he would support a referendum on Scottish independence.

His comments will be regarded as an embarrassment for the SNP, who are unlikely to welcome any suggestion that their referendum plans are supported by the right-wing extremist party. The three Unionist parties at Holyrood oppose the proposals to hold a referendum next year.

Mr Griffin suffered a humiliation of his own yesterday when he was forced to withdraw from campaigning in the Glasgow North East constituency. About 40 protesters heckled the politician and threw eggs when he arrived at the headquarters of L107, a radio station based in Hamilton, Lanarkshire, leading to three arrests. A BNP spokesman later claimed Mr Griffin had been delayed by a previous meeting at a veterans’ charity in Hamilton.

The BNP leader said that the party hoped to gain ground in Scotland, where it has lost all of its election deposits to date. The main aim of contesting next month’s by-election in Glasgow North East, he said, was to shore up support before the next Holyrood elections in 2011. “We were 4.4 per cent in Glasgow North East in the European elections. We are going to be running a better campaign and there is a lot of public interest and sympathy for us so I think it is realistic,” he said.

“In Glasgow there is a [Holyrood] seat to be taken with probably about 6.5 per cent of the vote and we believe that is a do-able thing.”

Mr Griffin said that he supported the Nationalists’ call for an independence referendum. “We will oppose it because we think overall it will be bad for Scotland and the United Kingdom. But if the Scots choose it then they are entitled to have it,” he said.

Mr Griffin made the comments at a drop-in centre operated by the veterans’ charity FEBA — Forward Edge of Battle Area — which turned to the BNP for support recently when its income dropped. A local party activist donated central heating equipment and a lump sum of £3,000.

The military has been a stern critic of the BNP, with a group of leading military chiefs — including the former Army heads General Sir Mike Jackson and General Sir Richard Dannatt — accusing the party of exploiting the services by associating its political campaign with the military.

Yesterday the BNP leader said that he planned to continue supporting veterans. “If the generals want to be involved in politics for the British Isles, then all they have got to do is to come out openly and say that how the Government treats our ex-servicemen is a disgrace,” he said.

Mr Griffin pledged to set up a support network for FEBA if it did not find the £100,000-a-year funding it needed over the next five years. “They are doing wonderful, important work here and they need recognition from the Scottish government,” he said.

However, he said that the BNP would “walk away” from its ties with the charity if it found the funds.

Tommy Moffat, the charity’s founder, emphasised that he was not a BNP member and said that FEBA was a non-political organisation. He told The Times that the party had not offered any money.

He said: “There is no magical cash input. It is simply [Nick Griffin] coming in and giving us his expertise.”

An SNP spokesman said: “Griffin’s racist politics and poisonous message have no place in Glasgow or anywhere else in Scotland. The BNP have never saved a single deposit, or ever had a single elected representative anywhere in Scotland. Glasgow stands united against them.

“The fact that Griffin opposes Scottish independence, or any other views he may have, is up to him. People reject him because he is a racist.”

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