London, England -- Britain's Queen Elizabeth II withdrew the invitation of a far-right politician to her garden party Thursday after he "blatantly politicized" it, Buckingham Palace said.
Nick Griffin, the controversial leader of the British National Party, was among thousands of guests due to attend one of the queen's three annual summer garden parties at Buckingham Palace.
He was invited because he is an elected member of the European Parliament -- and disinvited because his politicizing the invitation "increased the security threat and the potential discomfort" to other guests, Buckingham Palace said.
The palace said Griffin "overtly used his personal invitation for party political purposes through the media".
The BNP leader called the withdrawal of the invitation an "attack on democracy, the media, freedom of speech and one million British patriots".
He said the reason given for the reversal was "invented nonsense" and that citing "natural media interest" in him to cancel the invitation was "a disgusting disregard for democracy in Britain".
And he warned that "blatant attempts at gagging the BNP always backfires (sic)".
Griffin posted the statement on the BNP website and e-mailed it to supporters as a fundraising solicitation.
CNN
