Member of the Sikh community have been warned that they must reject overtures from the BNP.

The warning came after it emerged that BNP activists had been targeting Sikhs in west London in a bid to unite against "Muslim extremists".

The BNP's leader, Nick Griffin, said he wanted to forge an alliance with the Sikh community to combat "problems that our people and their people have had with Muslim extremists".

However, the Commission for Racial Equality has warned Sikhs not to form links with the extreme right group. Shahid Malik said nobody should be fooled by the supposed shift in BNP thinking.

"We have a BNP that is desperate to get in bed with anybody with whom they can move their issue and their cause forward,'' he told the Today programme.

"This is not 17th Century India, this is 21st Century Britain, and divide and rule certainly will not rule here. If Griffin hasn't realised it yet, he's insulting the intelligence of the British Asian community."

Malik described the BNP as "dangerous and vile" saying the party was still the home of "fascist scum".