IN a week’s time I’ll be appearing on the BBC’s Question Time. Nothing unusual about that.

It goes with the job, as it does for the Conservative and Lib Dem representatives who’ll be taking part.

What’s different about this Question Time is that Mr Nicholas Griffin, the leader of the British National Party (BNP), will also be on the panel.

All three mainstream parties have, up to now, declined to appear alongside the BNP at public meetings, or on programmes like Question Time.

And the BBC has never before invited them to take part in a panel show.

However, the broadcaster decided to offer the far-right party more airtime after it gained two seats in June in the European Parliament, with Mr Griffin as one of the MEPs for the North West of England.

Many people – including some of my Labour colleagues – are unhappy that the BNP is being given media opportunities, because of the views it promotes.

Just last week, for example, two BNP activists told Radio 1 that Ashley Cole, the England footballer, couldn’t be British because he was black.

Never mind that he was born in East London and has lived in Britain all his life.

I wonder what they’ll make of my Jewish heritage.

Many also think that whatever the BBC’s decision, the Labour Party should not take part.

They believe, and I entirely respect their view, that by sharing a stage with the BNP we are legitimising their views.

I understand these concerns. My colleagues and I spent much time considering our approach.

It was not an easy decision to make, but it was a collective one and, in my view, the right one.

Had we decided not to take part, the main winners might have been the BNP themselves.

They would have made all sorts of grand claims about our decision.

And I do believe that we can best expose the reality behind the facade by taking them on.

After all, I’ve done so many times already at my town centre open air meetings, as well as on the doorstep.

I’ve always believed that the best way to tackle extremism like theirs is to expose it through argument.

We also have to accept, even though we don’t like it, that enough people voted for the BNP in June to give them two seats in the European Parliament.

Now the BNP is seen by most as a racist neo-fascist organisation.

But I don’t believe the majority of people who voted for it are.

I think they’ve supported the BNP as a protest vote, perhaps because of anger over MPs’ expenses, or due to concerns about particular issues that they don’t feel the mainstream parties are tackling.

What we need to do in response is to convince those who have been attracted to the BNP that supporting them was the wrong decision.

That means exposing the BNP for what they really are; far right extremists with a racist ideology which causes immense harm in what is otherwise the most tolerant country in the world.

But it also means talking to people about their legitimate concerns, on the economy, on immigration and on housing.

Then the task is to campaign for policies that respond to those concerns. That’s what we’ve done in Blackburn.

It’s why we took back council seats that the BNP had won. Now we have to do it nationally.