Staffs University Students' Union president Assed Baig

By Faye Patrick & Kate Startup: The Staffordshire University Students’ Union President today backed his controversial move to post a link to a list of local BNP members.

Assed Baig told StaffsLive it was “the right thing to do” and vowed to stand by his “political principles”.

The BNP has lodged a complaint with the police after the link containing local members’ addresses was posted on the internet.

Many students complained after seeing the link on the website. The link was promptly removed.

The BNP has since contacted Staffordshire Police, calling the link a ‘criminal act’, and have lodged an official complaint on the grounds that Mr Baig has allegedly broken the Data Protection Act, the Race Relations Act and the Public Order Act.

Mr Baig says he did it to help protect students from the BNP.

He said: “We have a policy against the BNP and when I was up for election my manifesto was clear, everyone knew this is what I believed.”

There have already been reports of mistaken identity and hate mail towards people who share the same names as BNP members.

An official statement was later written and posted on the Union website. It read:

“On Tuesday the 17th of November, the President of the Students’ Union, Assed Baig, posted an article on this website which contained links to two websites advertising the whereabouts of known British National Party members.

“It is important to emphasise that this is the statement of an individual and not necessarily of the Students’ Union or its members.”

But Mr Baig added:  “The website will give you a list and tell you the proximity of the BNP to where you live. Please stay safe.

“There are 30 members of the BNP within two miles of the university in the Stoke campus.”

Mr Baig says he is not responsible for the original website.

He said: “We didn’t put up the address and I am not responsible for that website. I have just put a link on there so that people are aware of who the BNP members are.

“I think that it was the right thing to publish it, I will back  it and I will stand by my political principles.”

Mick Temple, Professor of Politics at Staffordshire University, said: “The BNP is a legal political party, details of other political parties would not be posted on the web.

“No matter what my opinions of the BNP are, it is still an invasion of privacy.

“I understand Assed’s concerns and I know they are genuine. I  just think that this is a very dangerous breach of data protection and human rights.”

The BNP declined to comment to StaffsLive because of our connection to Staffordshire University.

A debate on the issue will be held on Monday November 23 at 5pm in the Ashley Building, Stoke-on-Trent campus.

Transport from Stafford will be provided. To book yourself on the coach click here.