A “VILE” and racist party has announced its candidate for Lewisham borough’s mayoral election.

Tess Culnane previously ran unsuccessfully for the far-right National Front in the 2008 Haltemprice and Howden by-election in Yorkshire.

She also stood for the National Front in the 2008 London Assembly elections, polling 8,509 votes in Greenwich and Lewisham, and has now been named as the British National Party (BNP) candidate for Mayor of Lewisham.

Ms Culnane, a long-term resident of the borough, has also spoken at a meeting of the British People’s Party (BPP), an extreme-right group which supports repatriation of immigrants and banning abortion.

The party sells busts of Adolf Hitler for £15 on its website, along with books on the Ku Klux Klan.

In a speech on the internet, Miss Culnane talks of people being “infected” with multiculturalism and speaks about an “invasion” of Britain.

She goes on to claim “we can no longer trust foreign doctors” and urges her supporters to “unleash the British Bulldog”.

The grandmother told News Shopper: “The indigenous British people will be airbrushed out of existence. That’s what’s happening now.”

Ms Culnane, who refused to tell us her age, claims she will be tough on crime and council bureaucracy and that she will make Lewisham “a borough where British interests and people are put first”.

She said: “The crime level has gone beyond all reason now. I don’t care what the statistics say.”

When asked about her speech at the BPP meeting, she said: “I’ve got no time for them.”

In 2008, Ms Culnane unsuccessfully tried to sue Lewisham Liberal Democrats over an election leaflet which alleged some leading members of the BNP had criminal convictions.

She was ordered to pay more than £100,000 in costs.

Current Lib Dem leader Councillor Chris Maines, who is also running for mayor, pointed out Ms Culnane was “hammered” by his party when she stood in a Downham by-election last year, getting just 287 votes.

He said: “Previously when she stood we exposed her vile party.

“We’ll continue to fight the BNP who offer nothing to the people of Lewisham.”