Bishop Williamson back in the UK

Richard Williamson, the Roman Catholic bishop who has denied that any Jews died in Nazi gas chambers during the Second World War, a viewpoint that has caused massive embarrassment for Pope Benedict XVI, returned to Great Britain last night. But from look of his reception party at Heathrow, which included the socialite Lady Renouf, it does not look he is in any mood to revise his controversial opinions.

Renouf, a former beauty queen and truck-drivers daughter who married the late financier Sir Frank 'the bank' Renouff, denies that she is anti-Semitic but has described Judaism as a "repugnant and hate-filled religion". Williamson was back in the UK after being deported from Argentinia - he had been working as a director of a seminary near Buenos Aires - following a ruling by the countrys interior minister.

And the Times reports that the Bishop, who was rehabilitated in to the Roman Catholic church by the Pope shortly before giving an interview to Swedish television in which he made his remarks about the holocaust, has contacted the revisionist historian David Irving, asking how to present his views on the Holocaust without arousing controversy.

Irving, who has served a prison sentence in Austria for "glorifying and identifying with the German Nazi Party", told the Times: "He is not a Holocaust denier. Like me, he does not buy the whole package." He also said that they had been in e-mail contact with Williamson. "About a week ago I sent him a lengthy e-mail telling him what he could safely say. He should not be quoted as saying things which are not tenable. I sent two pages telling him what is incontrovertible fact. I got a message back thanking me."

As for Lady Renouf, she has a history of helping out alleged Holocaust-deniers. Last October she found lawyers to defend Frederick Toben after he was arrested at Heathrow at the request of the German authorities for publishing "anti-Semitic and/or revisionist" material on an internet site. ·