George Galloway’s Workers Party of Britain at centre of a row over nailing leaflets on trees in London borough

George Galloway’s Workers Party of Britain was at the centre of a row over nailing leaflets onto trees in a London borough.

A flyer for the party’s candidate Sabi Patwary in Chelsea and Fulham was put on a tree in Westfield Park, Chelsea, with others in at least one street.

Some of the leaflets were taken down by council staff and nails removed.

A Kensington and Chelsea council spokesperson said: “Any fly-posting on our trees will be removed, regardless of content.”

London minister Greg Hands, who is standing again to be the Tory MP for Chelsea and Fulham, said: “George Galloway’s politics of division is not welcome in Chelsea and Fulham.

“If party activists have been going around fly-posting and damaging trees that is also unwelcome.”

The borough’s park police sought to get in contact with Mr Patwary after it became aware about the flyers on trees.

It is understood that the leaflets were put up by an activist who believed it was permissible to do so, and not by Mr Patwary,

Hussain Shafiei, national organiser for the Workers Party of Britain, said the individual who had put up flyers on trees had been spoken to and told to stop it.

He added: “He will not be doing it again.

“We do not condone what they have done. They don’t have a support to do that and they have been reprimanded with a warning.”

Mr Galloway, who won a by-election in Rochdale in the spring to be elected the town’s MP, was not involved in the leafleting on trees.

Kensington and Chelsea council is understood to be one of the last town halls to have a dedicated parks police service, with arresting powers within its parks.

It also has a street enforcement team with civil powers, not of arrest, to deal with issue like littering or anti-social behaviour outside the parks.

Mr Hands is facing a challenge from Labour to hold onto the seat of Chelsea and Fulham which he won in 2019 with a majority of 11,241.

If he loses, it could mean the Tories being wiped out in Inner London, as their two other seats in this area, Cities of London and Westminster, and Kensington and Bayswater look far more vulnerable.

A recent YouGov poll predicted that the Conservatives would see their number of seats in the capital plummet from 21 to just four, only retaining Hornchurch and Upminster, Orpington, Old Bexley and Sidcup, and Romford, with the last two being close contests against Labour.