Staff must work with BNP

Staff at the Greater London Authority will face the sack if they refuse to work with any British National Party candidates elected in next month's Assembly elections.

The warning came in meetings to clarify the duties of support staff, press officers and other workers at City Hall, should the BNP achieve a breakthrough. The Evening Standard's YouGov poll this week showed the far-Right party has the support of five per cent of Londoners, enough to see the election of an Assembly member. GLA staff have expressed fears they may be asked to help the party with its campaigns should it get on to the Assembly. Some workers fear they will be asked to draft racist letters or conduct policy work as they do for other parties.

But at the meeting, copies of the authority rules were handed out, making clear their contracts stipulate they must stay impartial - even if they strongly disagree with BNP policies.

"All staff employed by the Greater London Authority to work for members of the London Assembly are apolitical officers, the same as at any other level of government.

"Staff are not appointed to one Assembly member, so if the structure changes staff may be redeployed. This will be dealt with following normal human resource practices after the elections, should the need arise," the GLA guidelines state.

But TUC employment rights chief Hannah Reed said: "All local authorities are under a clear strategic duty to promote race relations and equality under the Race Relations 2000 Act. Staff are well within their rights to seek advice from senior managers if they believe they are being asked to do something that contravenes the act."

Unison's London convenor Geoff Martin said: "We don't want our workers threatened with the sack. There must be a way of people being allowed to express their concerns.

"Of course, the best way round it is to make sure they don't get five per cent of the GLA vote." In the wake of the Evening Standard poll, Ken Livingstone today joined trade unionists, MPs, MEPs and religious groups to launch an all-party London-wide "Unite Against Fascism" campaign to get voters to turn out to stop the BNP.

The Mayor said a BNP seat "would deal a devastating blow to community relations in the most diverse city in the world".