BNP leader Nick Griffin’s performance on the BBC’s Question Time has been roundly condemned by Dorset MPs.

During the hour-long programme Mr Griffin declined to explain why he had denied the Holocaust, described one faction of the Ku Klux Klan as “almost totally non-violent” and said the sight of two gay men kissing was “creepy”.

But his stance on immigration seemed to strike a chord with many people in the street in Dorset, who said it was an issue that all the major political parties have failed to tackle.

Mr Griffin said: “We believe it’s time to shut the door because this country is overcrowded, that criminals, bogus asylum seekers and people who aren’t loyal to this country should be deported and everyone else can stay.”

Mr Griffin was greeted by protesters as he arrived at BBC Television Centre and got a hostile reception from the Question Time audience and panel.

Afterwards he said he planned to make a formal complaint to the BBC claiming “it was not a genuine Question Time, it was a lynch mob”.

Bournemouth West’s Conservative MP, Sir John Butterfill, said: “I think his inadequacies and his biases were very well displayed.

“I think people will now see what he’s really like.”

South Dorset Labour MP and employment minister Jim Knight said: “I don’t think it was the right decision for him to appear on that particular programme and I regret the amount of attention that his appalling views have received.”

Annette Brooke, Liberal Democrat MP for Mid Dorset and North Poole, described Mr Griffin’s views as “absolutely offensive”.

She said: “I was disappointed with the way the programme was handled. I think it made him centre stage which I think is undeserved.

“I think it’s really important for each of the major political parties to address all those people who might consider the BNP. I do think it’s an element of the failure of the immigration policy of the last two governments that’s giving him a platform.”

North Dorset Conservative MP Bob Walter said it was important that extreme political parties like the BNP are not allowed to “hijack” important issues like immigration.

He said: “I think we as politicians have to ask why is it that people vote for them. I think the major political parties have addressed the immigration question but I think that what is happening is that the BNP tend to play to people’s fears.”

Office worker Floyd Simmons, 27, of Bournemouth, who served for nine years in the British Army, said he agreed with Mr Griffin over immigration.

“I think immigration in this country is a joke,” he said.

“No-one is talking about immigration in case they get deemed to be the racist party. It’s political correctness gone mad.”

Office worker Scott Thompson, 23, from Bournemouth, said he thought Mr Griffin “chose his words very carefully”.

He added: “My views on what a bogus asylum seeker is are a long way from what he would consider a bogus asylum seeker to be.”

Grandfather of three, David Emerton, 67, said he didn’t agree with Mr Griffin’s views but added that the programme seemed “a bit one-sided”.

“I know he had the opportunity to voice his opinions but there was not a lot he could have said to some things put to him,” he said.

Retired London police officer Nicholas Saunders, 61, now of Bournemouth, said he thought Mr Griffin was “ganged up on”.

He said: “This country bends over backwards for immigrants and I think we do too much.”

Grandmother of two Louise Power, 79, of Bournemouth, said: “I agree with some of the things he said about immigration.”

Echo reader Mike Nelson described Nick Griffin as “a shifty opportunist of dubious morals with somewhat flexible political views”.

“The majority of those who voted BNP only did so as a protest against the ineffective lightweights who form our current so-called government,” he said.