A Gloucestershire host was left fuming after Home Secretary Charles Clarke used her pub car park for an election photo shoot without asking permission.
A mobile police unit routinely stops off at the car park of the Fisherman Inn at Sedbury but host Debra Barrett was surprised when a greater number of police cars, some containing armed officers, drove into the pub car park last week. Labour's election candidate Isabel Owen was the next to arrive, and one of her entourage entered the pub to say that the Home Secretary was visiting the area for a photo shoot.
Barrett said Clarke turned up about two hours after the first police car, and began chatting with police. The licensee said she cornered Owen to ask for an explanation: "She assumed it was all cleared [and she] quickly passed me off to some other Labour Party official. I'm furious they used my premises without my permission."
Gloucestershire Police said the Labour Party "specifically asked to visit the mobile police station" but that "due to reasons of security we were not able to disclose the details of the visit beforehand".