As Mr Griffin was challenged about his Nazi sympathies, the BNP leader explained while his father had fought Adolf Hitler in World War Two, Mr Straw's father Walter was behind bars at Wandsworth prison for refusing to fight.

"My father was in the RAF during the second WW while Mr Straw's father was in prison for refusing to fight Adolf Hitler," Mr Griffin said.

"Mr Straw was attacking me and I've been relentlessly attack over the last few days, my father was in the RAF during the second World War, I am not a Nazi. I never have been," he added.

A clearly stunned Mr Straw fell dumb.

Straw's father was a conscientious objector, so he was jailed.

Walter Straw was an insurance salesman and his wife Joan a nursery school teacher and Labour councillor.