THE Labour Party has selected a candidate who co-founded a campaign against the British Heart Foundation.

Vegan activist Denise Friend set up the “British Heartless Foundation” targeting the charity’s shops across the country.

Activists stood outside the shops shouting “animal killers” into megaphones and blasting sirens.

Demonstrations were held across the country and shops, streets and car windscreens were plastered with anti-BHF leaflets.

Ms Friend, who is standing in the May Brighton and Hove City Council elections in Preston Park ward, was pictured inside a BHF charity shop holding a placard in the face of a shop worker.

In another picture she can be seen outside a shop with campaign material and a megaphone.

In a tweet from the group, Ms Friend is pictured with a megaphone outside a Camden BHF store captioned “We emptied the shop. Thanks to all involved”.

The group also staged a demonstration outside the BHF charity shop in Western Road, Brighton, in July 2017.

The campaign aimed to get the BHF to stop funding animal testing.

The BHF admits it funds animal research but only when there are “no feasible alternatives”.

A Facebook page for the British Heartless Foundation was set up in 2014 and its last post was in May last year.

Other posts show pictures of British Heartless Foundation stickers plastered over lamp posts and railway station windows.

In a filmed 2015 interview, Ms Friend said: “We started it because I’ve been a member of Animal Aid for years and they sent an email about it. I was so shocked about the suffering paid for by the British Heart Foundation. I asked people and most people didn’t realise they funded animal experiments.

“[We thought] it would be a really good campaign as it would mean everybody in the country could join in. Rather than coming together at one big event or two big events a year, we could all do the same thing without travelling and do a co-ordinated campaign. So that’s what we have done.”

Ms Friend has previously demonstrated against Hove’s greyhound stadium and also Zippos Circus.

Professor Metin Avkiran, associate medical director at the BHF, said: “Heart and circulatory  diseases blight the lives of more than seven million people across the UK. That’s why we’re dedicated to finding better preventive approaches, tests, treatments and cures.

“To do this we fund vital research using cells grown in the laboratory, computer models, human volunteers, and animals when other techniques aren’t feasible. 

“This isn’t an issue we take lightly. Every application for research funding goes through a rigorous review procedure. We proactively encourage the replacement, reduction and refinement of the use of animals in research. We also actively fund studies into finding alternative research methods.

“BHF-funded research has been crucial to the discovery of life-saving breakthroughs for heart patients over the past half century.

“But heart and circulatory diseases are still the world’s biggest killer.

“For the foreseeable future, our work will continue to involve animals when no feasible alternatives exist.”

Ms Friend did not respond to requests for a comment.