A VICAR is urging his flock to use their vote and stop an extreme political group gaining power.

The Rev Julian Hartley of St John's Church, Mosley Common, has joined leaders of the Christian Church and other faiths and community leaders united in a common cause to stymie the plans of the British Nationalist Party.

They fear the prospect of power in the hands of the party if they are allowed to win seats at this year's round of local and European elections.

Mr Hartley, writing in his parish magazine, said: "As a member of the Diocesan Board for Ministry and Society I believe it is right to call the church to action on this issue.

"The gospel calls us to seek justice and stand against wickedness. This is the basis of the call to Christian action to frustrate the plans of the BNP, who last year contested two seats on Wigan Council.

"Edmund Burke, a famous British statesman, politician and philosopher from the late 1700s observed that 'all that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing'."

"I am prepared, along with other church leaders to name the BNP as an organisation to be opposed. Our ballot box provides a fair, lawful and peaceful means of doing so. So let us use it and vote. Let us be a people of action and not a people of complacent inaction."