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Mayor squares up to homeless mums

Newham boss launches violent rant against housing activists

SHOCKING footage came to light yesterday of a testosterone-fuelled east London mayor squaring up to a young homeless mum campaigning for decent housing.

The Morning Star was shown a video of Newham Mayor Robin Wales shouting at single mothers and housing campaigners handing out leaflets highlighting their eviction from the Focus E15 hostel.

Mum-turned-social housing campaigner Sam Middleton told the Star that the Labour mayor “was very rude” when she attempted to hand out leaflets at the public fair. 

The video clearly shows Ms Middleton approaching Mr Wales from a distance when the mayor starts frantically waving his hands and shouting at her. 

The raging politician then had to be held back by one of his own security guards who led him into the safety of a gazebo.

Another campaigner tried to hand Mr Wales a leaflet about the mothers’ plight as he passed — but the mayor angrily slapped the man’s hand away. 

“I did feel threatened,” said the man, who wished to remain anonymous.

“He lunged but was restrained.”

“He started shouting that it was a ‘family day’ but failed to see the irony that there were families who would have loved to be there but they were forced out of London by his policies,” the activist explained. 

Mr Wales’s security then shunted campaigners from the public space.

Ms Middleton told the Star that a “communications officer” took two lots of Focus E15 leaflets and threw them away.

When she tried to retrieve them she was manhandled out of the Mayor’s Newham Show.

“I literally just got picked up, my arms behind my back, everything,” said the mother of one.

A spokeswoman for the council argued that “officers took the decision to evict the group of protesters and political activists from the park as they staged an aggressive protest.”

Newham Council has insisted it had rehoused the mothers but the group point out that the current rents eat up most of their income. 

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