THE English Defence League is on a recruitment drive in March, using a community notice board outside a Co-operative store to attract followers.

Among adverts for the Royal British Legion Poppy Appeal, earrings and necklaces on the community board outside the Badgeney Road shop, meant for charitable events, there was an EDL flyer, asking people to join.

The controversial far-right group’s poster promotes “No tolerance for intolerance”, and despite their slogan, “Peacefully protesting against militant Islam”, they have frequently been involved in several riots this year, and last month clashed with Unite against Fascism in Leicester that led to a police officer taken to hospital with leg injuries.

The EDL, who have over 48,000 members on Facebook, say they oppose the spread of Islamic extremism, Sharia Law, and Islamism in England, not all Muslims.

Store manager, Andy Ayres said: “We check the board daily. Someone must have sneaked it in.”

An Anglian Co-operative Society spokesperson said: “A member of the public put the flyer on the notice board. The notice board is to support community initiatives. The flyer was not approved and we do not endorse the English Defence League.

“We have changed the management of the store, and the board will be checked more frequently.”

Normally, members of staff put the adverts up and the EDL flyer has now been taken down.

Tommy Robinson, the EDL leader also known as Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, is said to have charged and thrown punches at Muslim protestors burning poppies near the Royal Albert Hall, in London yesterday.