THE boss of Burnley Council has hit back at "false statements" in a leaflet being distributed by the far-right British National Party.

The leaflet claims that Burnley Council discriminates against white candidates in favour of black and ethnic minority candidates.

But Steve Rumbelow, Burnley Council's chief executive said: "The leaflet makes misleading claims about how the council treats job candidates from different ethnic backgrounds.

"The council does not discriminate in the way that it recruits its workers.

"By law, we employ the best person for the job, irrespective of their ethnic background.

"There can be no excuse for this material being published in an election leaflet and the BNP should withdraw the leaflet and correct it."

The leaflet reads: "In order to comply with the race relations act this Liberal/Tory alliance are continuing with the policy of increasing the number of ethnic minority employees.

"This means that if two equally qualified people, one of the white British majority and the other of an ethnic minority group, were to apply for the same post in Burnley Town Hall, the ethnic minority applicant would have the advantage."

As part of the pre-election briefing to political agents, it was made clear that Burnley council has agreed that it will robustly challenge any election material that: implies that the council is acting unlawfully in its decisions or in the way that it operates or contains information that is inaccurate about the council.

The BNP were unavailable for comment.