THE family of a 12-year-old girl accident victim has blasted the far-right British National Party for using details of her death in a political leaflet.

Amy Houston, a pupil at Our Lady's and St John's High School, in Blackburn, died in hospital last November.

She had run into the road and was hit by a car driven by a failed asylum seeker close to her home in Ravenglass Close, on Blackburn's Fishmoor estate, where she lived with her mother Joanne Cocker.

Angry father Paul Houston, from Accrington, said he wanted nothing to do with the leaflet, which has already been distributed across the North East of England and could soon be used in Lancashire.

But the BNP, which has seven councillors in Burnley, today insisted it had done nothing wrong and would continue to use the case to highlight its policy on asylum seekers.

The car involved in the accident was being driven by Kurdish-Iraqi asylum seeker Aso Mohammed Ibrahim, who was disqualified from driving at the time of the accident.

He ran off, leaving firefighters to free Amy from under the car. Ibrahim had exhausted all options for appeal but had not been deported because of the volatile political situation which still exists in Iraq.

The 25-year-old pleaded guilty to driving while disqualified and without insurance and failing to stop after an accident. He was jailed for four months in December,

Details of the case have now appeared in a copy of a BNP leaflet called Newcastle Patriot, distributed to homes it is targeting in this summer's local council elections.

It says: "While Amy's parents have to live their whole life coming to terms with their daughter's death, Ibrahim will be back on the streets in as little as two months.

"Similar tragedies are increasingly common, and the situation will get worse.

"Only the BNP will stand up and so no to asylum madness."

Amy's father Paul, of Russia Street, Accrington, now fears the leaflet could hamper his campaign -- backed by local MPs -- to get a change in the law so that people driving while disqualified get tougher sentences if the are involved in fatal accidents.

He said: "The last thing we want is for Amy's memory to be used by a party with just one thing on their political agenda, stirring up racial hatred.

"This is very upsetting and makes me very angry. I did not bring up my daughter to be a racist, and I am not one either. This leaflet implies we are supporting the BNP when nothing could be further from the truth.

"We would like the BNP to stop using Amy like this straight away.

"They aren't interested in me, my daughter or what we want. They are only interested in themselves."

Amy's Grandma, Margaret, also of Accrington, added: "We would hate to think Amy's memory is being used for political gain and to stir up racial hatred. We do not agree with what they are saying."

Spokesman for the party, Phil Edwards, added: "We don't think we have to approach families before mentioning things like this, lots of people know about it.

"We presented it the way we thought was right. We might well use it again around the country, why shouldn't we?

"The family will probably agree with what we are saying."

Mr Houston added: "To us, this isn't an asylum issue and it shouldn't be seen as such, and Amy's memory should be being used like this.

"It is about the law giving people more serious punishment for tax evasion than for playing a part in taking my daughter's life."