British opponents of Donald Trump staged a rally outside the US embassy in London to protest at what they said was “the dangerous resurgence of anti-abortion efforts and other threats” when he becomes the next president.
Hours earlier, two environmental activists from Just Stop Oil were arrested for spraying orange paint on the outside of the embassy building.
Mr Trump has won a second term in the White House after surpassing the key threshold of 270 Electoral College votes on Wednesday and claiming a majority of 51 per cent of the popular vote, to beat Kamala Harris.
Protest groups Stand up to Trump and Stand up to Racism urged supporters to demonstrate outside the American embassy in an “emergency protest” to show anger at the man they dubbed “hatemonger-in-chief” who they said was a threat to the climate.
One speaker told the crowd, who chanted slogans, that they wanted to say no to his “bigotry” plus “transphobia, attacks on migrants and every rotten thing he represents”.
They said his victory had emboldened every racist, far-right figure around the world, including in Britain.
Another speaker said LGBTQ+ people were threatened by Mr Trump, the KKK (the Ku Klux Klan), the far right and “all that he energises”.
Shortly after Mr Trump took to the stage in Florida to declare victory on Wednesday, the Just Stop Oil activists doused an exterior wall of the embassy with their trademark orange paint.
The Metropolitan Police said two men, aged 25 and 72, were arrested on suspicion of criminal damage and were held in custody.
Deputy assistant commissioner Andy Valentine said: “Officers from the Parliamentary and Diplomatic Protection Unit arrested these two men within minutes, ensuring that they could not cause any further damage to the embassy.
“This activity is vandalism purporting as protest and we will continue to have a zero-tolerance attitude to actions such as this.”
A Just Stop Oil spokesperson said: “As long as democracy is hijacked by corporate interests and billionaires, it will fail to deliver the change ordinary people are crying out for. This will always leave the door open for fake populists like Trump to exploit the disaffection many feel.”
