CONSERVATIVE election posters on billboards in Worcester have been defaced with British National Party (BNP) posters.

Campaign posters on the corner of Sherriff Street and Tolladine Road, and Williamson Road and Newtown Road, are known to have been targeted.

One of the posters has been spraypainted, although the Conservative logo is still visible, while posters with the words “BNP Putting British People First” have been stuck on the billboards.

The BNP has joined Robin Walker, the Conservative candidate for Worcester, in condemning whoever decided to deface the posters.

“It’s sad and pathetic,” said Mr Walker. “At the end of the day we are trying to put our case to as many people as possible and people who deface advertisements are just cowardly.”

Mr Walker said his party was aware of the damage and had reported what has happened to the advertising company. He said he would continue to do so if more of his party’s posters are defaced.

BNP spokesman James Whittall said: “This is the first I have heard about this but we don’t condone such behaviour. There is no evidence to prove it was our people but we take a very dim view of such things.

“If it turned out to be one of our activists we wouldn’t condone it and we would look to distance ourselves from this because we don’t like it when it happens to our advertisements.”

• The British National Party has revealed it will be fielding a general election candidate in Worcester – Spencer Kirby.

Yesterday Mr Kirby was unavailable to comment.