Nick Griffin, the BNP chairman, went yesterday to a police station where four of his members were being questioned on suspicion of stirring up racial hatred.

Today he will be back with detectives, this time as a complainant asking them to solve the mystery of how his entire party membership was leaked to the internet.

Mr Griffin has been fighting to cling to the leadership of the BNP just as the party believes that it is on the brink of winning its first seat in the European Parliament.

Speaking to The Times, he insisted that voters would now see that his members were ordinary Britons. “This has blown up in the faces of those who organised it,” he said. “Instead of the public being terrified, they can see we are not a bunch of knuckle-dragging morons but a party of people just like them. Long term, it’s going to do us a great deal of good in the public’s eyes.”

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Mr Martin Webster claims that the Anti-Nazi League had published addresses and telephone numbers of party members and officials

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Mr Griffin has been pointing the finger at Kenny Smith, the BNP’s former head of administration and victim of a bitter and dramatic recent purge inside the party, as a likely source of the leak. Mr Smith said that this was a disgusting and untrue smear. Once the party’s most prominent figure in Scotland, Mr Smith was subject to a High Court injunction in April preventing him from using BNP material, including membership lists.

Also injuncted was Sadie Graham, a councillor in Broxtowe, Nottinghamshire, who was regarded by Labour as a terrifyingly effective organiser.

The feud was reminiscent of an episode of Spooks. In bizarre circumstances, Ms Graham was apparently bugged in her home and a transcript of her conversation with Mr Smith appeared on the internet. Then, in a manoeuvre described by Labour MP Jon Cruddas as “nothing short of burglary”, the BNP’s security division tricked their way into her home and removed her personal computer.

Mr Smith said yesterday that he swore an affidavit to the High Court making clear that he had deleted all membership lists.

Mr Griffin, who is expected to be candidate for North West England in the European elections, was confident that he would see off his enemies. “They have been trying to undermine me for a long time,” he said.

He was protesting yesterday over dawn raids by police investigating the distribution of inflammatory leaflets. The propaganda said that people should heap condemnation on Muslims and that it was time for them to apologise for being responsible for 95 per cent of the world’s heroin trade. dkennedy@thetimes.co.uk

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