Walsall Council 'tried to block Brexit rally' featuring Chris Grayling

The Leader of the House of Commons joined Brexit campaigners in Walsall town centre on Saturday to hand out leaflets urging people to vote for Britain to leave the EU in June's referendum.

But the event was thrown into jeopardy just hours before the minister was due to arrive when Walsall Council allegedly tried to ban campaigners from setting up a stall on Park Street.

However, organisers from the Vote Leave group defied the council's orders and pressed ahead with the event, which took place just yards away from where far-right group United Patriots set off on an anti-Islam protest.

One of the Vote Leave organisers, Tory Councillor Adam Hicken, who represents Willenhall North on Walsall Council, described attempts to block the event as 'undemocratic'. Mr Hicken said: "We were told we could go ahead with the event over a month ago, providing we didn't block the public's right of way.

"It was late on Friday afternoon that I took calls from the council's licensing department telling me that we weren't allowed to set up the street stall. I feel that it's actually quite shocking that Walsall Council decided to leave it until the last possible moment to inform us of this.

"It appears that Walsall Council has decided to deny referendum voters the right to see both sides of the argument and they should be ashamed of themselves for attempting to stop this from going ahead.

"We decided to go ahead with the event in defiance of the council as we firmly believe what they tried to do was undemocratic. There were plenty of other stalls in the town and a far-right march going on at the same time, but for some reason we appear to have been singled out by the council."

Council leader Mike Bird said any attempt to block the event was 'totally unacceptable'.

He said: "I'm disappointed and somewhat annoyed that a young politician has gone to great lengths to put on this event involving a high ranking cabinet minister only to be told at the last minute that he can't have a stall. I will be speaking to the officers involved."

Walsall Council says it had no powers to prevent the march from taking place.