The anti-immigration British National Party has used a Polish WW II spitfire as part of their new European parliamentary elections campaign.

On a poster for the elections in June, Britain’s most prominent far-right political party  - who are against immigration from eastern Europe - uses images from the WW II Battle of Britain as a sign of the UK’s historical independence from mainland Europe.

But there were red faces at the BNP’s headquarters after a historian pointed out that the spitfire featured on the poster was from the Polish 303 Squadron, which flew as part of the RAF’s effort to repel the Nazi Luftwaffe. The squadron was, famously, one of the most deadly in the RAF and shot down 12 percent of all enermy planes.

The BNP’s ‘Battle for Britain’ campaign kicked off with a series of road shows, where, as the party’s web site declares: “We will unveil our strategy for the election as well as having Party Chairman Nick Griffin delivering his ‘Call to Arms’ keynote speech”. But the central message of the campaign – ‘British jobs for British workers’ - has now dive bombed into a hail of derision being heaped on it following the small, but vital, spitfire mistake. (pg)