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A photograph has emerged of a BNP councillor pictured with three men giving a Nazi salute standing next to a war memorial.Steve Batkin is a councillor at Stoke-on-Trent City Council and is also a governor at two secondary schools.
The image, taken in 2002 in Stone, shows Mr Batkin and saluting far-right activists with a Union Jack flag.
Mr Batkin said the men were expressing their "rebelliousness" but admitted the image was "regrettable".
The BNP said it rejected fascists and the "fascist cultists" who for many years had tried to take over control of the party.
The photograph was recently given to the BBC.
The National Union of Teachers (NUT) has called for Mr Batkin to resign his school governorships and stand down from his council post.
South Staffordshire Royal British Legion manager Peter Smith said he viewed the photograph with "revulsion".
"Three hundred and twenty six thousand servicemen and women died in World War II so that we wouldn't have Nazi salutes on the streets of Britain."
The picture was taken while Mr Batkin was campaigning to win a seat on the city council.
Smiling pose
Mr Batkin told the BBC the men were members of a "blood and honour" group sympathetic to the BNP but not officially linked.
Two of the men are now dead, he added.
He said: "When the picture was shot, I don't know exactly whether they're going to do a fascist salute or not. "It would have been better they didn't. But the fact is they did express their rebelliousness."
Asked about his smiling pose, Mr Batkin added: "Yes, they are good, sound patriotic people.
"I do understand why they did it, because they feel they need to rebel against the British establishment who they see as very left wing and liberal."
Mr Batkin is a governor at Edensor Technology College and Mitchell High School, both in Stoke-on-Trent.
A council spokesman said: "Schools have their own code of conduct for their governors, and the decision whether or not to suspend a governor rests with the school."
Michael Coleman, a spokesman for the Stoke-On-Trent BNP branch said: "Membership conditions of the BNP bar association with people who behave in a way that our people, the British people, would find offensive, this includes wearing fascist emblems or behaving in a way that would harm the reputation of the party."
He added due to the age of the photograph, he thought it would be sufficient to remind members at the next meeting that fascist associations were unwelcome, but to take no further action.This article is from the BBC News website. ? British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.