A POLICE watchdog spent public money on theatre tickets and yoga as part of a project to support asylum seeker children, its chair says.

Sonoo Malkani has defended the Harrow Police and Community Consultative Group’s (HPCCG) use of £50,000 of taxpayer’s cash in a lengthy comment on this website.

The group came under fire earlier in the week from Councillor Susan Hall, leader of Harrow Council’s Tory opposition.

Ms Malkani said: “I was flabbergasted when Cllr Hall accosted me and repeatedly insisted that our members/I had been to Albert Hall.

“This is really most unfair and improper. She must stop this dirty tricks campaign and stop smearing our good name.”

She said £200 was spent sending 15 asylum seeker children to Cinderella on Ice at the Royal Albert Hall and later received “warm letters of thanks” detailing “what it meant for these unfortunate young people who had suffered so much”.

Another £170 including in its spending records as “yoga classes” was also to help unaccompanied asylum seeker children and aimed to teach them skills and improve their self esteem, she said.

She also defended money spent on catering but acknowledged the prices they currently pay may be too high after having to cough up £3.50 for a single carton of orange juice.

The fierce response comes as Harrow Council for Justice writes to Tory peer Baroness Warsi to ask for her intervention.

Pravin Shah, the group’s general and legal secretary, said Cllr Hall’s criticisms “are not only contrary to the spirit of the ‘big society’ but also have serious implications for social and community cohesion”.