A CLOTHING chain has performed a U-turn after banning staff from wearing poppies at work.

After a row at its Southampton WestQuay store Hollister said last night it will now allow staff to wear poppies in the run-up to Remembrance Day.

Shop worker Harriet Phipps, 18, who wears a poppy in honour of a friend currently serving in Afghanistan and her grandfather who fought in the Second World War, said she had been told to take hers off by a supervisor because it was not part of the uniform.

Hollister, owned by American giant Abercrombie and Fitch, initially altered the policy to allow staff to wear poppies on Remembrance Day itself before lifting the ban completely saying it “now better understood the issue.”