A FORMER far-right organiser claims the BNP are finished and, despite events following Lee Rigby's death in Woolwich, the EDL won't last.

As a young Mein Kampf-reading man living in Lee, Matthew Collins became a full time organiser for the National Front and a BNP volunteer. But all that ended when the BNP went into a meeting at Welling library - an event which ended in extreme violence with women getting attacked and the room being smashed up.

The 41-year-old said of that time: "It gave me food for thought. Basically you're a very young man and you're involved in all this exciting stuff, fighting reds and smashing the IRA, so you tell yourself, but suddenly it all comes down to little old ladies getting their heads kicked in.

"You spent all that time trying to deny what people said about that organisation and deep down you know its true."

Since then, Mr Collins has worked for anti-fascist magazine Searchlight and written a book called Hate about his experiences. And he was not surprised by the BNP's meagre support when they tried to march through Woolwich after May 22's attack - a demonstration later moved to central London but pitifully attended.

Mr Collins, who claimed the after-rally drinks were held in a Sydenham boozer, said: "The BNP are finished, they're totally unable to cash in and they wanted to cash in.

"After Woolwich, the first thing the BNP did was send an email to all its members saying we need your money.

"The organisation is finished. Next year they'll use all the rest of their money trying to get Nick Griffin elected."

The English Defence League (EDL), an anti-Muslim group whose marchers often meet in pubs beforehand, appeared to have had a little more support with their demonstrations following Mr Rigby's death.

Mr Collins said the south east London branch is led by two brothers, and there are regular meetings in Eltham. But he claimed the threat they posed would pass.

He said: "Before Woolwich the indications were that the organisation was going to wind up. There was no interest in it from the leadership.

"The EDL was on its knees but so many people had been though it and had been radicalised, networks had been formed. The organisation died but the networks didn't."

He went on: "It won't last. It's not a membership organisation, it's basically two people's project. They don't have a membership structure."