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Two members of the public were banned from taking their shopping bags into a council meeting – because they had a picture of Jeremy Corbyn on the front.

Cuts campaigners Julie Boston and Oliver Fortune turned up to lobby councillors at Labour-controlled Bristol City Council over cuts to libraries and other services.

But after being searched by security guards at the entrance to City Hall, they were told that while the things in their bag were ok – the bag itself was not.

Both were carrying tote bags depicting a scene from the post-apocalyptic movie I Am Legend, but instead of the movie’s star Will Smith trudging through a broken New York streetscape, it was Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.

Even though the Leader of the Opposition wasn’t particularly obvious in the image, the security decided the bag contravened the council’s policy on overtly political banners and visible protests.

Strangely, Mr Fortune – who has campaigned for months against the threat of closure to many of the city’s libraries – was wearing a long-sleeved t-shirt that bore the words ‘Put services before 6-figure salaries’, and that was allowed in.

“Our Jeremy Corbyn bags were denied entry,” confirmed Mr Fortune.

“I got to the security point and emptied my small bag onto a tray,” he said.

“I was examined by a metal detector and they went through the contents of my bag. I had nothing to declare.

“I put my things back into my bag, but the guard said Corbyn wasn’t welcome,” he added.

“I said: ‘Why? He’s the leader of the party that has overall control of the council?’

“It was too political, the guard said to me,” added Mr Fortune.

“The bag is small and small bags are apparently permitted. I had no intention of displaying the bag as a protest – my T-shirt was a protest in itself,” he added.

It is not the first time apparent divisions in the Labour Party have played out in Bristol – just last week, one of the city’s MPs left a fiery meeting of her own constituency Labour Party.

Bristol West Thangam Debonnaire MP was criticised by some in her own local party for taking part in a demonstration against anti-semitism within the Labour Party – but later received broad support from many in Bristol.

All four of the city’s MPs are Labour, and the party lead by Jeremy Corbyn has had overall control of the city council since 2016, when a majority of the city’s council wards voted in Labour councillors and a Labour mayor, Marvin Rees.

But it would appear that the banning of the Jeremy Corbyn bags from a council meeting to discuss cuts was not a slight on the Labour leader himself.

Since an anti-cuts protestor brought a budget meeting to a halt in February by letting off a smoke canister, security has been tightened on entering the public gallery. And the city council has a rule banning the carrying of anything overtly-political into the council chamber, like banners and flags – whether they show Theresa May or Jeremy Corbyn in dystopian New York.