Barbara Windsor tells those who don’t wear poppies to “sod off”

Windsor said: “I don’t care as long as I have a poppy in my lapel”, adding: “We need to get young people selling poppies”.

But when asked what she thought of those who chose not to sport one, she retorted: “they can sod off for all I care”. What would we do without them (the military) looking after us?…

Babs, 78, was speaking at a London Poppy Day launch that saw members of the Armed Forces try to raise £1million in just a day.

The poppy has become a symbol of remembrance of those who have given their lives fighting for their country.

Will there be as big a demand for poppies as a year ago?

Channel 4 newsreader Jon Snow caused a stir in 2011 by refusing to wear a red poppy on TV. You will have merchants with poppies for sale along with Cadets selling them. And in those terms, and those terms alone, I do not and will not wear a poppy.

But yesterday feisty Barbara Windsor pulled no punches by telling those who do not support the Poppy Appeal to “sod off”.

Branch 139 Poppy campaign chair Joe Bazan has volunteers phoning businesses to take wreaths for display and a few are also taking boxes of poppies for sale by donation.

Barbara Windsor attends the Pride of Britain awards at The Grosvenor House Hotel on September 28, 2015 in London, England.

89-year-old Gordon Quan has been attending Remembrance Day services for the past 60 years.