BNP fury as member list is made public

THE British National Party has demanded a police investigation after a full list of party members was posted on the internet.

The list includes 78 people with Oldham addresses.

The party said in a statement posted on its website that the list with the names, addresses and contact details of more than 12,000 individuals was essentially genuine.

It includes details of the jobs, and in some cases the hobbies and qualifications of the members. It is believed the list includes former police officers and members of the armed forces.

BNP leader Nick Griffin said: “We will be asking the police to investigate. It’s a list which is now more than a year old. Having spent a lot of money to secure our members’ privacy we are disappointed that it has been breached in such a way.”

In his statement on the BNP website, Mr Griffin described the publication as a disgraceful act of treachery by former BNP staff members who had subsequently been sacked.

He said he had lodged a complaint with Dyfed–Powys police on the grounds that the publication breached human rights and data protection laws.

Prohibited

According to the BNP, the list is based on its 2007 membership although a number of names of people who were not or are not party members had been added. Earlier this year, the party said that it obtained a High Court injunction banning any publication of the list. The Association of Chief Police Officers last night confirmed that serving police officers were not allowed to be members of the BNP.

“Membership or promotion of the BNP by any member of the police service, whether police officer or police staff, is prohibited,” said Peter Fahy, the chief constable of Greater Manchester Police and Acpo’s workforce development spokesman.

“This is because such membership would be incompatible with our duty to promote equality under the Race Relations Amendment Act and would damage the confidence of minority communities.

“While the policy may have been controversial at the time it was enacted, in 2004, it has since been accepted by all staff and staff associations and remains unchallenged thus far.”