A small number of academics and academic support staff, as well as students and retired professors, have been outed as possible members of the far-right British National Party following the leak of a membership list last week.

The list, which dates from late last year and has been confirmed as genuine by BNP chairman Nick Griffin, was distributed by what the party have termed a "disgruntled former employee" last week. It contains the names of nearly 13,000 individuals, many of whom are active members, and some whom are former members or non-members whose details the party has on file.

Amongst those listed are a researcher based at the University of Manchester and an estates manager employed by the University of Strathclyde, both of whom appear on the institutions' respective websites. Alongside the entry for the Strathclyde staff member, the document notes that the individual's children are also paid-up party members under the young BNP "super sup club."

Several more members supply university e-mail accounts—those ending in the top level domain .ac.uk—including an individual from John Wheatley college, "Glasgow's friendliest college," and one from St John's College, Oxford. It not been possible, however, to confirm whether these accounts belong to staff or students.

In addition, a professor from Estado Aragua, Venezuela is listed as having renewed his membership.

While members of the police and prison officers are barred from membership of the all-whites party under the race relations amendment act (2000) no other professions face restrictions over party membership.

Thus the employers of the teachers, lawyers, civil servants and academics on the list face prosecution should they take action against far-right employees. Indeed, in a letter to what he termed his "band of brothers," Mr Griffin divulged that an unnamed firm of "highly experienced employment rights lawyers" have agreed to act, pro bono, on behalf of any party members facing discrimination.

Accordingly, universities have been so far wary when discussing those named in the document.

A spokesperson for Strathclyde University issued the following guarded statement: “The political beliefs of individual staff members are a personal matter. If, however, such beliefs should impinge on a staff member’s professional activity, the University may have to consider its position.”

Other institutions are equally uneasy over the revelations: a spokesperson at the University of Manchester acknowledged that a photograph of the individual appeared as part of the institution's online material, though pointed out that the PhD researcher in question was not directly funded by the university, and does not tutor students. The University of Manchester-based research group for whom the individual works was unavailable for comment.

Similarly, a spokesperson for the Open University admitted that the list claims membership of an OU lecturer, but denied that the person listed was, currently, on the OU staff. "It is very concerning," said the spokesperson, "that the OU has been associated with this matter without the data being verified."

The discrepancy points to possible inaccuracies in the BNP document. Nonetheless, the individual in question does indeed exist: an agenda from this year's "Red White & Blue" BNP festival reveals the member speaking alongside Mr Griffin.

Contacted regarding concerns over the occupations of those listed, a spokesperson for the BNP condemned the "persecution of people of people, facilitated by the media, for having the wrong views."

He said: "Say the BNP were in power and we decided to ban all Labour party members from teaching in universities. Would you publish lists of their names and hound them out of their jobs?"

When pressed as to whether or not universities ought to employ individuals who profess membership of a party whose views many students find distasteful, the spokesperson responded: "I was taught by people at university who were left-wing and I found their views abhorrent. They didn't care."