It looks like the home secretary, Alan Johnson, will not be budging from his refusal to share a platform with the BNP's Nick Griffin whatever the outcome of Labour's rethink of its ban triggered by the BBC's Question Time invite.
Johnson, who is one of a number of senior Labour figures who has already refused to appear on the flagship current affairs programme alongside Griffin, made clear at the weekend he won't be changing his mind.
"I've gone 59 years without sharing a platform with a fascist, and I don't intend to start doing it now," he told yesterday's BBC Politics Show after being asked by presenter Jon Sopel if there was any circumstances in which he would change his mind.
The Labour party has made clear that no minister will be forced to debate with the BNP, but it is reconsidering its customary ban on sharing a platform in the light of the BBC's invite to the BNP following their success in the European elections. I wonder how many other cabinet ministers will go down the same road?
