Labour leader Ed Miliband’s visit to the King’s Head pub in Deal on New Year’s Eve has been criticised.

When KentOnline broke the story of the visit to the Beach Street pub, Facebook user Justin Holmes pulled the Leader of the Opposition up on his choice of venue.

He said: “Years ago a Labour leader would have attended the Welfare Club in Mill Hill! Shows how times have changed.”

Mr Holmes, of Sandown Road, Deal, later told KentOnline: “In my view Ed Miliband would have done himself a power of good popping in the Welfare Club for a pint to show that the Labour Party are interested in their core vote and they don’t take it for granted that people like myself will always vote Labour!

“I myself, since the Blair years, have found the Labour Party not interested in working class issues any more. They tend to be more interested in the middle class.”

The Welfare Club, in Cowdray Square, is widely used by ex-miners. Secretary Ron Kempshall - who used to work in the pits - said senior Labour figures are always welcome at the club.

He said: “He certainly would have been welcome there. Most of them are Labour voters. Dennis Skinner has visited the club before now. John Prescott (former deputy leader of the Labour Party) visited after the strike, near the time of the closure of the pits, and Gwyn Prosser (former Labour MP for Dover & Deal) opened up the Computer Suite in 2000.”

He added: “The local Labour Party certainly know we’re here.”

Then head of National Union of Minworkers, Arthur Scargill, who led the 1984-85 miners’ strike, was another senior Labour movement figure to visit the social club.

Asked if he would consider inviting Mr Miliband to the club, Mr Kempshall said: “If the Labour Party were to get in touch with us, it would not be a problem.”

Mr Miliband has been to the town before, in 2011, visiting the Citizens Advice Bureau in Victoria Road. On his second visit last week, he was pictured in the Deal pub with the landlord Graham Stiles’ son James.

The picture was uploaded to Twitter by Platform 1 Cafe at Deal train station. It said: “Ed Miliband in @KingsHeadDeal with James Stiles just now.”

Mr Stiles senior said: “He came in Wednesday lunchtime with a friend but didn’t have a drink - he was with friends, he came in, then left.”

Unusually Mr Miliband wore glasses on the day - which made people think the picture was a hoax. However a Labour source confirmed Mr Miliband was with his wife Justine in the town. It is understood the politician was holidaying with family and friends.

A staff member from Platform 1 cafe at Deal station said: “When Ed Miliband was told that Ukip leader Nigel Farage was a regular visitor at the King’s Head he laughed and said ‘Now you tell me!’”

Mr Farage, who will fight for role as MP in Thanet South this May, tweeted a picture of himself outside the King’s Head in August 2013.

The Labour Party’s head office has not yet commented.

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