A LEAKED list of BNP members revealed 22 living in Hyndburn.

The list containing names, addresses, email addresses, occupations and home and mobile telephone numbers was posted on the Internet.

The Hyndburn members include two retired university lecturers, an electrical engineer and a mental health expert.

When we tried to ring them one had Rule Britannia playing on his answer machine.

Some were unavailable and many refused to speak to us.

But retired Salford University lecturer David Thornton, of Green Haworth, answered the phone saying: "Proud to be in the BNP."

He said: "I got the impression that we had privacy of data. However, this does not appear to have been observed in this case.

"I don’t personally think the list came from a former member of the BNP, though there was a quarrel at the top that I’m aware of.

"There is information going around that it was done by a Government organisation, and M16 has been suggested, to discredit us."

Mr Thornton, who donates over £30 a month to the party, told the Observer that in the past he had been visited by the police after writing BNP Zone on the side of his house.

He added: "The BNP is becoming increasingly successful and more affluent. It’s scaring the politicians of this country – Liberal, Labour and Tory. None of them are really looking after the working man and large numbers are turning to the BNP.

"The BNP does not comprise a bunch of skinheads. It has its own policies and is very clearly anti-immigration. My political views are my own affair."

Kevin Bryan, spokesman for the BNP, said: "The leaking of this list is an attack on the BNP and an attack on freedom. People should have the right to belong to whatever political party they choose.

"Some of our members are receiving threatening phone calls from people trying to intimidate them.

"We’re not sure exactly who is responsible. There are rumours about a former employee or the state hacking into our computers."

Former Clayton-le-Moors councillor Tim O’Kane said: "There are more people in Accrington Stanley’s squad than the BNP has local members.

"It is an interesting fact that in order to stand as an MP a candidate has to have the signatures of 30 local people so the BNP could not even muster that number of signatures without resorting to non-members."