BNP leader Nick Griffin and party activist Mark Collett will face a re-trial, the Crown Prosecution Service confirmed, after the two were cleared by the jury of some charges yesterday evening.

The case was closed after two weeks when the jury at Leeds Crown Court failed to reach verdicts on most of the charges.

Nick Griffin, 44, will face a retrial on two race hate charges after being cleared of two others. Mr Collett, 24, was acquitted of four charges, but will stand trial again on a further four.

"The jury has been discharged and the Crown Prosecution Service intends to seek a retrial on the outstanding charges," an official at the court said.

Hailing the outcome of the trial, Giffin said it was a "tremendous victory for freedom" and a "fantastic day for the people of this country".

He told the BBC: "If the CPS feel they must continue to persecute us simply for telling the truth then we will see them in court."

The two were arrested for inciting racial hatred on the basis of comments recorded for an undercover BBC documentary called The Secret Agent in 2004.

While Nick Griffin was acquitted of one of each charge in relation to one speech, the jury failed to reach a consensus with regards to a second speech in which he called Islam a "wicked vicious faith".

Mark Collett denied four charges of using words or behaviour 'intended to stir up racial hatred' and four of using words or behaviour 'likely to stir up racial hatred'. BBC reported yesterday that he was acquitted of four charges, two of each.

In a pub conversation recorded and broadcast by the BBC, he had described asylum seekers as "a little bit like cockroaches", and had said "let's show these ethnics the door in 2004".

During the trial both defendants told the jury they were engaging in legitimate political dialogue about issues which concerned ordinary working people.

Labour MP Shahid Malik told the Blink website: "This is not a victory for free speech. It has never been an unqualified principle. It does not give you the right to go around inciting hatred."

It is thought that by focusing on attacking the ideology of Islam rather than Muslims themselves, the party leader hoped to convince his detractors that he bore no ill-feeling towards followers of the religion.

As asylum-seekers themselves do not constitute a specific racial group, it also became difficult during the course of the trial for the prosecution to argue that Mark Collett was demonising people of a specific ethnic background.

The BNP says that rather than blaming ethnic minorities for their grievances, it had contempt only for the British political parties and the media.

But the case centred more around the issue of freedom of speech. The jury had to decide where that ended and breaking the law began.

Convincing the jury that the two specifically demonised particular race groups in order to incite hatred was difficult, considering their remarks were broad and focused on multi-racial groups such as Muslims and asylum seekers.

Collapse of the trial without a conclusion one way or another means the issue will continue to be raised in courts.