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Police scour BNP membership to find officers breaching ban
• Merseyside PC was former driver to chief constable
• Mixture of defiance and denials from those named

* Ian Cobain and James Meikle
* guardian.co. uk, Wednesday November 19 2008 20.02 GMT
* The Guardian, Thursday November 20 2008

Every police force in the UK was tonight scouring the leaked British
National party membership list for names of serving officers, after the
Merseyside force confirmed it was investigating one officer's links to
the far-right party.

The Prison Service pledged to oust any employee on the list and far-
right supporters spoke of fear for their livelihoods as the BNP was
plunged into crisis.

Party officials complained that hundreds of members had received
threatening or abusive telephone calls within hours of the list being
posted on the internet, and feared that the episode could lead to a
damaging slump in support and membership.

Merseyside police, who discovered the name of one of its constables on
the list, identified him and said that he had served briefly as the
chief constable's driver. A spokesman said: "We are very clear:
membership of the British National party is totally incompatible with
the duties and values of the police service and Merseyside police. We
will not accept a police officer or police staff being a member of BNP.
As a matter of urgency, we have immediately started an investigation
into all aspects of this case."

Scotland Yard, Surrey and West Yorkshire police also confirmed that they
were studying the list, and the Association of Chief Police Officers
said it expected every other force to follow suit.

A detective inspector serving in the professional standards department
of a Midlands force, who was checking the list against his force
personnel records, said: "Even people on the list who are lapsed members
of the BNP, or who have just approached the party expressing an interest
in joining, will be of interest to us."

Any officer found to be a member of the party will face disciplinary
action and is likely to be dismissed. The Prison Service is also
investigating whether any of its officers are on the list. The secret
membership lists the occupations of some members, and one individual,
living near York, is identified as a serving police officer.

Rod Lucas, a presenter with TalkSport radio station, was also identified
as a member, but said he joined the BNP at the same time that he joined
around 20 other organisations, during a research project. "I find the
BNP distasteful, I wouldn't vote for them. Sometimes you have to get
your hands dirty," he said.

Around 13,000 names and addresses appear on the list. It is thought to
include a number of lapsed members and possibly the names of individuals
who contacted the party and expressed interest in joining but did not do
so.

However, the BNP has confirmed that it is essentially a genuine
membership list. It includes the names of a number of clergymen, an
actor, two solicitors, at least one doctor and a number of primary and
secondary school teachers.

A handful of those contacted by the Guardian said their names appeared
by mistake, claiming to have no interest in the BNP. "We're absolutely
horrified by this," said a retired teacher from West Yorkshire, who has
appeared on the list with her husband. "We're absolutely devastated and
wondering if we offended someone and they applied to the BNP with our
names as a joke. We're contacting lawyers but what can we do?"

Many were open about their membership, however, declaring they had
nothing to be ashamed of. "There's nothing wrong about being a member of
the BNP," said John Page, 66, recently retired from teaching foreign
students at Barnfield College in Luton. "Some people at work —
colleagues and students — knew about my membership. I've never had any
problems with it."

Ida Jordan, 80, from Preston, said she had received threats. "It was an
educated male voice. He said: 'Take care now. You are a racist.' My
opinion is that we should look after our own country, our own people,
but I don't have any animosity toward people of a different colour or
religion."

Jan Gibson, a pensioner from Quorn in Leicestershire, said she and her
husband had been members for four years. "I have nothing against
coloured people at all. They can't help their colour. I can't help being
white," she said. "Our friends know we are in the British National
party. They actually agree with us. They have not got the courage to do
what we do. A lot of people think as we do."

The release of the list offers a new insight into areas of the country
that appear to have the highest numbers of supporters for the BNP.

A total of 192,746 voters cast their ballot for the party in the 2005
general election, just 0.7% of the total vote, restricted to the limited
numbers of constituencies where the party put up candidates. Previous
analysis of the BNP's support base relied on its recent successes in
local elections. The party has its largest numbers of councillors - 12 -
in Barking and Dagenham, with strong representations in councils in
Stoke-on-Trent and Epping Forest in Essex.

Although the police and the Prison Service are thought to be the only
public bodies that prohibit membership of the BNP, many other
individuals could face disciplinary action once their membership is
known.

Nick Griffin, leader of the BNP, said he had little doubt that the leak
was "a disgraceful act of treachery" by disgruntled former BNP
officials.

http://www.guardian .co.uk/politics/ 2008/nov/ 19/police- bnp-far-right- list