Billy Bragg hits out at BNP following hate campaign against him

Billy Bragg has become the target of a hate mail campaign aiming to drive him out of the village he lives in.

The singer, famously a campaigner for left-wing causes and anti-fascist organisations, has seen dozens of letters sent to his neighbours in the village of Burton Bradstock, Dorset, with some describing him as a "hypocrite" and "anti-British".

Bragg has claimed the anonymous letters, which have a Southampton postmark, are from a British National Party member and has urged his neighbours to bin them.

One letter ended with the sentence: "People of Burton Bradstock stand up for the British and kick this traitor out of your village and out of Dorset forever." In it Bragg was described as "useless as a singer and a man".

Speaking to the Daily Mirror, Bragg described the letter as the "powerless ranting of a bitter individual angry that, even in a sleepy village, people reject the politics of racism". He also reaffirmed his commitment to fighting racism, adding: "I will campaign against racism wherever I find it."

Bragg has not, as yet, reported the letters to the police.