Hackney Green Party activists hand out "Boris Banknotes" outside Dalston Kingsland station yesterday

Hackney Green Party activists distributed “£250,000 Boris Banknotes” to commuters at Dalston Kingsland overground station yesterday morning, to promote their campaign supporting small businesses.

The fake notes were designed to highlight what they claim is the Mayor Boris Johnson’s “unwavering support of the City of London at the expense of normal Londoners.”

The London Green Party wants the Greater London Authority group - including Transport for London - to only deal with banks which demonstrate they are lending to London’s small businesses.

Caroline Allen, Green Party candidate for Hackney in this year’s GLA elections, said: “Small businesses are the backbone of Hackney’s economy, but working myself for a small business I know times are hard and costs are rising.

“Businesses need to be able to invest but banks care more about creating dodgy investments than supporting the real drivers of the economy,” she added.

The Bank of England’s latest quarterly trends show that lending to small businesses actually fell by 5.1 per cent last August.