Andrew Brons, the BNP's first MEP, said that the athlete's mixed race heritage means she is "only partially from this country".

 

The BNP – which bars blacks or Asians from joining – rejects the notion of a multicultural society and refuses to consider black and ethnic minorities to be British, even if they or their parents were born here.

His comments have provoked anger from politicians and sporting bodies.

 

The British Olympic Association (BOA) said: “Dame Kelly Holmes played an important part in Team GB as a hugely successful British athlete.

 

"We are immensely proud of her achievements.
 

"Team GB is not about the colour of your skin, it is about performing at the highest level while representing this country at Olympic events.”
 

Liberal Democrat MP Ed Davey said: “This type of comment reveals the ugly face of the BNP which they try to hide from voters yet is at the heart of their extremism.”

Brons, who began his political life as a member of the neo-Nazi National Socialist Movement, said he rejected the notion that Black or Asian members of the community could be British, even if they were born here.
 

He said: "I don't accept the term Black British or Asian British.

 

"Britons are the indigenous peoples of these isles."
 

Asked about someone like Dame Kelly, who was born in Kent of a white English mother and Jamaican father, and served for several years in the Army before becoming one of this country's most successful athletes, he said: "Kelly Holmes is only partially from this country, even if she is an integrated member of the community."

 

Holmes, who won the 800 and 1500 metres at the 2004 Olympics in Athens, was recently chosen as the new President of Commonwealth Games England and in a blog she wrote exclusively for insidethegames last month she explained passionately about how proud she was to be British and English.

 

She wrote: "I want people to proud of being English.

 

"It was a huge honour to wear the Great Britain team kit, but I live in England and I am proud to be English too."

Brons, 61, also claimed that black footballers who play for England, such as Emile Heskey or Glen Johnson, could not consider themselves to be British.

 

He said: "They are British citizens – which is a legal concept – but not British by identity. That's not a pejorative description, it is just stating a fact about their racial identity."

The BNP's ultimate aim – as laid down in its constitution – is a return to a predominately white Britain that existed before the 1948 Nationality Act.
 

Police have stepped up security around Brons's home in Harrogate, North Yorkshire , after threats against him were posted on a football fans' internet chat room.
 

Harrogate College, where Mr Brons worked as a politics lecturer until recently, is coming under pressure to explain why it continued to employ him despite his views.
 

Brons says he would have taken up an offer to return to the college in September had he not been elected as MEP for Yorkshire and the Humber .