A PRO-independence activist has hit out at an outdoor advertising agency for “hypocrisy” after two more Yes billboards were banned.

David Hooks told The National yesterday that two billboards, created by ItsTime.Scot, had been knocked back by advertising agency Clear Channel – with no “good explanation”.

Now he has revealed that a further two images have been rejected.

The first says “Westminster isn’t working” – a play on the 1978 Conservative campaign against the Labour party – and the second says “Westminster’s lovebomb blitzkrieg”.

The advertisements were part of a series of 18 due to go live on Monday but now only 10 will go ahead.

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Hooks said: “For the ‘Westminster isn’t working’ one there was no explanation at all. They didn’t tell us if it was a copyright issue. We asked why and if there was a bit about that in the rules. It took them four days to come back with an answer.”

The other designs which were knocked back included one depicting a London skyline with the caption “paid in Scotland”.

Stella Creasy was the victim of billboards attacking her for her pro-abortion stance

Another showed a nuclear bomb with the heading “Westminster loves bombs”.

Hooks said he was told the “Westminster’s lovebomb blitzkrieg” image was rejected “because it also had a bomb”.

“It’s very hypocritical of them,” he added. “One of the approved ones had Scotland in Union in barbed wire – the blood of the wire of the UK has gone through. People may find the ‘Scotland gets what England wants’ image offensive but it has gone through.”

Clear Channel approved the campaign against the Labour MP Stella Creasy by an anti-abortion group, which included a billboard featuring a foetus and the words “Stop Stella”. Hooks believes this part of the reason why the adverts were rejected.

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He said: “I have seen offensive and unfair ads like the Stella Creasy one. I think that’s partly where they got cold feet as they were responsible for that. It was a national scandal so I think they are doing more gatekeeping on their billboards.

“They should go ahead with it and if people complain then they should take it down but they are not a gatekeeper.”

He continued: “We’re deliberately aiming to be controversial. That’s what advertising does.”

Hooks said Clear Channel was unable to say how the adverts breached its rules. He added: “Our main contact at Clear Channel has been excellent but we have had issues with the legal team. In the quote they sent me it sounds like they have their own internal process but no guidelines have been laid out.”

Hooks (above) believes “Unionist hypocrisy” is another reason why the adverts were declined. “A few of the ultra-Unionists will be upset by it but I don’t care to be honest – that’s a good thing,” he added. “The Unionist news and views are broadcast daily into living rooms and they don’t pay for it. We [the pro-independence movement] have to pay for our views and we are blocked.”

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A spokesperson from Clear Channel said: “Clear Channel takes a neutral stance towards all advertising and has in the past run campaigns from across the political spectrum. We’ve accepted a booking of ten billboards for ItsTime.Scot, across ten locations in Scotland. With all advertising of a political nature, we have additional internal procedures in place, as the UK advertising code does not provide clear cut guidelines about what is and isn’t acceptable.

“The majority of campaigns provided by the client were given the go-ahead. We politely declined a small number of campaigns that we felt may provoke a negative response within the communities in which operate.”