It has been revealed that a Cambridge technician is a BNP member.

Arthur Nightingale, head experimental design engineer at the Centre for Industrial Photonics in the Engineering faculty, was one of more than 10,000 people on a list of British National Party members leaked online this week.

The list, thought to be have been released by a disgruntled former BNP member, contains the names, addresses and other details of members including police officers, soldiers and a vicar. It has now been removed.

The party has reacted angrily to the leak. It has appealed to Data Protection legislation and the Human Rights Act (which it opposes) to prevent the further dissemination of the list.

Mr Nightingale admits to being a paid-up BNP member. He joined the party after Gordon Brown refused to hold a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty; he says that "the three main parties were all pro-Europe, so I felt I didn't have a choice but to look to the BNP or UKIP." He claims that he is not active within the party despite holding membership.

A University spokesman said, "Political beliefs are an entirely personal matter, as long as they do not affect performance in the workplace."

Soban Khawaja, head of CUSU's Black Students Campaign, says that Mr Nightingale is "within his rights" to be a BNP member, but adds that "if he tries to influence others here, he should either drop his membership or quit his job." Khawaja does not accept Mr Nightingale's reasons for joining, however, arguing that out of the BNP and UKIP he chose the "party of racial hatred".

By Hugo Gye

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