A COUNCIL candidate has been pictured brandishing a gun.

Rachel Firth, who is standing for the British National Party (BNP) in Thursday’s Kirklees Council elections, was photographed holding a handgun.

The Skelmanthorpe mother-of-two was pictured along with other senior party activists at a campsite.

Mrs Firth, who is the BNP’s Kirklees organiser, was snapped standing next to a Renault aiming a black handgun.

The weapon is believed to be a replica.

Mrs Firth’s boyfriend Danny Cooke, BNP organiser in Barnsley, is also pictured brandishing a gun.

Salford candidates Gary Tumulty and Keith Fairhurst were snapped posing with replica automatic weapons.

The photos were taken at a BNP St George’s Day celebration at Hooton Lodge Country Inn campsite near Rotherham.

The manager of the campsite is believed to have been unaware of the fact the get-together was organised by the BNP and that replica guns would be used.

Mrs Firth, who is standing for the BNP in Denby Dale in Thursday’s Kirklees election, could not be reached for comment yesterday.

The pictures are believed to have appeared on Facebook last weekend before being reproduced on the Hope Not Hate website run by anti-fascist group Searchlight.

The pictures include a snap of three men mooning to the camera.

Earlier this month the Examiner revealed that many BNP activists in Kirklees had left the party in protest at the leadership of Nick Griffin.

The defectors, who have joined the English Democrats, complained of the BNP’s “terrible image”.

David Exley, a former BNP councillor for Heckmondwike, is among those who have quit the party.

He said yesterday that the pictures of party members brandishing guns vindicated his decision to leave.