Learn to count with Nick Griffin

Among all the outrageous things that British National Party leader Nick Griffin said on Question Time last week, one detail caught Mediawatch’s eye:

Nick Griffin: “Our immigration policy is, I think, supported by 84% of the British population at present, who, according to a very recent opinion poll said they were very worried about immigration, it should stop…”
Bonnie Greer: “Which opinion poll, Nick?”
Nick Griffin: “I honestly don’t remember.”
Bonnie Greer: “Well there you go!”
Nick Griffin: “It was in the papers only the other day.”

Don’t worry Nick, Channel 4 News’ FactCheck has stepped in to look up the source for you. It turns out that the stat in question was cited by Andrew Green of anti-immigration group Migration Watch UK in a Daily Mail article published on the day of Griffin’s BBC appearance.

But wait a second, it looks like Griffin may have got his numbers a little mixed up. He seems to have decided that everyone who said they were “concerned” about the prospect of the UK’s population rising to 70 million in a poll conducted in July must be in support of his party’s policy (which, let’s not forget, involves an end to immigration and voluntary repatriation for people “of foreign descent”). And there’s a question mark over the figure cited by Green anyway.

The figure for the percentage of people who actually said they’d support an end to immigration in YouGov’s July survey was just 22%.

OK, so it’s a long way from being the most shocking thing that Griffin said on Thursday night, but it tells us something about his attitude to poll data.