3:02pm Tuesday 6th May 2008
By Alex McNally
A CHURCH leader is still working for the BNP - just weeks after claiming he would leave the far-right party.
In March, the Echo revealed the Rev John Stanton, former chairman of Rochford District Council, was working as a party organiser for the district.
But following our story, he said he had turned his back on the party after being "misled" and that he did not trust anything the party said.
But Mr Stanton, 75, who heads Rock Dene Christian Fellowship, based in his home, in Leicester Avenue, Rochford, has now "changed his mind" and is working for the party again.
At the Rochford District Council elections on Thursday Mr Stanton was the agent for the party's two candidates.
He said: "I was talked out of the BNP by a number of local Christians. Since then I have changed my mind."
Mr Stanton said he supports the party's views on Europe and combating extremism. He added that his congregation of around 20 people does not object to him supporting the party.
Mr Stanton spent four years as a Lib Dem councillor in Rochford in the 1990s and five years as a Conservative in the 1970s.
Tory leader Terry Cutmore, who retained his Ashingdon and Canewdon seat, said: "It seems very two-faced.
"Is he saying he is a member of the BNP, and supports their views, or he isn't?
"The BNP obviously hasn't got a place in Rochford."
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