They are the leaflets the British National Party hope will bring them success in the European elections.

They feature a doctor, a trio of builders and an elderly couple, proudly backing Britain and echoing BNP policies. But the pictures have been exposed as a sham.

Far from living up to the BNP slogan of 'British Jobs for British Workers', the 'voters' have been revealed to be Americans and Italians. Naturally they never uttered the words they are supposed to have said.

Even a wartime Spitfire pictured in BNP literature was flown by Polish pilots.

Now the models and photographers involved have reacted angrily to their images being linked to a party many people deem to be deeply racist.

The three 'British builders' are actually models who posed in Portland, Oregon. The men have not been named but photographer Boone Rodriguez finds the BNP message particularly insulting as he is the grandson of a Mexican immigrant to the U.S. He said: 'It sounds like this group is considered quite racist, which is despicable.'

Mr Rodriguez managed to find some humour in the situation, however, saying: 'It is ironic that they ended up choosing images from an American photographer whose grandfather moved here from Mexico.

The 'doctor', part-time actor Bob Cousins, 47, from Atlanta, Georgia, has never had any medical training and has never spoken to the BNP.

His picture is one of the most popular 'doctors' on the website of the Canadian iStockphoto agency and has been sold some 25,000 times.

He said last night: 'It is my personal policy not to publicly endorse any political party, regardless of their views, or platform. iStockphoto is investigating this misuse.'

Photographer Kelly Talele has been bombarded with emails over the BNP leaflets.

She said: 'If I'd known, I really wouldn't have wanted one of my pictures to be used like this. It's not something I would want to be associated with.'

The two 'UK pensioners' are actually Italians and the picture was taken by their son, who now lives in London.

The use of the photograph has alarmed him so much that he has asked not to be named for fear of repercussions.

He said: 'I am very unhappy that this image has been used. This is not something that I or my parents agree with.'

A spokesman for the BNP defended their use of stock photographs and said it did not matter if the people pictured were genuine supporters or not.

He said: 'All political parties use stock images like this. It's common practice.'

He insisted that the quotes attributed to the models were genuine comments from BNP supporters.

The spokesman added: 'We would like to have our supporters in the leaflet. We still have them - members of the police and medical profession - but if they appeared they would get the sack.

'This makes no difference to us or our policies.'