THE British National Party has caused outrage by filming a party political broadcast from the White Cliffs of Dover.

The extreme right-wing group used footage of Langdon Cliffs and the Battle of Britain Memorial at Capel-le-Ferne in the broadcast, shown on the BBC on Friday.

They did not have permission from either the National Trust, which owns the White Cliffs, or the owners of the Battle of Britain Memorial to film on their property.

Dover MP Gwyn Prosser said that he was "shocked and sickened" that footage of the cliffs was used in the broadcast. I'm angry that they should have used the backdrop of Dover for their nasty message," he said.

"It shows how totally out of touch the BNP are with reality. Nick Griffin [the party leader] was talking about hundreds of thousands of people coming across the Channel, but Home Office figures show that the number of people coming into Dover has been reduced to about five or seven a day.

"Dover people are fed up with being used as a backdrop for any stories about asylum and immigration. The situation has moved on. Immigration is controlled and there has been a crackdown on abuse of the asylum system.

"Home Office figures last week showed that there are just 67 people living in the induction centre on Dover seafront, which has a capacity of 200 people."

The National Trust said they had not yet seen a copy of the broadcast but that the BNP had not sought permission from them to film on the land.

Simon Ovenden, National Trust Property Manager at the White Cliffs, said: "All filming on National Trust land must be authorised by the Trust and the BNP did not contact us. If it had done so, we would not have given permission for filming to take place as we do not want to be seen to promote any political beliefs."

The BNP claim they were unaware that permission was needed. Party spokesman Richard Barnbrook said: "This is land belonging to the British people."

Geoff Simpson, a trustee of the Battle of Britain Memorial Trust, described the BNP's actions as "regrettable and discourteous".

"The site is accessible to the public 24 hours a day, seven days a week but we expect anyone who wants to film there to ask our permission," he said.

"We regret the fact that the BNP did not do so and had they asked we would have said no. We would not co-operate with any political party as we are a charity."