The English Defence League (EDL) has denied one of their members performed a Nazi salute during a march through Walthamstow on VE Day weekend.

A photograph distributed on social media showed a man performing the salute as he marched with EDL supporters.

But EDL spokesman Keith Thomas said the man, pictured outside The Bell pub in Forest Road, was known to the group as a Nazi and was lucky to escape without being assaulted.

He said: "The man in the picture is not one of our members. Our stewards pushed him out of our rally.

“He is a Nazi, we know him, and I doubt he will show his face again or there will be trouble.

“He is lucky he wasn’t physically abused by one of our members.

“Members of the National Front often join us and do the Nazi salute to try and get others to join.

"We do get that sort of thing unfortunately.

“The media were all hoping we would kick off and there would be violence.”

 


 

Mr Thomas said a picture of a bearded policeman at the rally, which went viral online with a twitter #hipstercop, helped the EDL promote its message.

“I think hipster cop helped both sides get their message across. It added another layer to the coverage," he added.

“One fantastic thing we found on the march was that despite some abuse hurled by both sides faces were smiling.

“There was no underlying tension or nastiness that we saw in Downing Street later in the day."