Leak shows BNP has 78 Oldham members

PRIVATE details of 78 BNP members in Oldham have been exposed after the entire national membership list was posted on the internet.

The information includes jobs, company owners, family memberships, addresses, phone numbers and e-mail addresses.

It ranges from people who have been election candidates, to pensioners living in sheltered accommodation, and even a 16-year-old girl and her phone number.

The complete list of 10,000 names was leaked on Tuesday and became widely available yesterday. It showed some members are police officers or in the armed forces, where BNP membership is banned.

Oldham members include a civil servant, managing director, bricklayer, builder, shop-owner, and taxi driver. Beyond the council candidates, 13 are described as activists.

Nick Griffin, the BNP’s leader, blamed the publication on deliberate sabotage by former members

He said his party has a court injunction because the leak breaches data protection laws, and added that anyone revealing the details would risk High-Court action.

Vulnerable

But Mick Treacy, who stood as a BNP candidate in Oldham in the 2001 general election, and as a council candidate since, said: “This is an old membership list. I am on it, but I resigned in 2007.

“This breaches the Data Protection Act and it’s illegal. The party has got to get to the bottom of it.

“I think a few people will feel vulnerable, but most people won’t care. The majority of people I know very well are committed British nationalists, experienced people who don’t care, but it could affect new members.

“But I appreciate some of the people will be wary.”

A Shaw member, whose personal details including name, address, phone number, occupation, qualifications, and hobbies were leaked, said: “It has been done to discredit and discourage people from having any connection with the party.

“I would prefer it if the list hadn’t been published. But the BNP is a legitimate party albeit one which is discredited at every point by the other parties.

“I am sure it would be much more interesting for the public to receive lists from the mainstream political parties, giving details of expenses and subscriptions by businessmen.”