Police officers have seized amplifiers used by a famous anti-Brexit campaigner outside the House of the Commons - just hours after a new law preventing “noisy protest” came into effect.
Footage shows officers surrounding Steve Bray, also known as “Stop Brexit Man”, and confiscating his hi-fi equipment on Tuesday afternoon.
Police have just seized our amplifiers x 2. And microphone. I still have megaphone. We are going to need more amplifiers and people. pic.twitter.com/6myZ3d6cMq
— Steve Bray Activist Against Brexit +Corrupt Tories (@snb19692) June 28, 2022
Mr Bray is heard screaming “You’re fascists!” as an officer pulls the speaker from his grasp, while another man at the scene screams “this is a free country”.
After the equipment is loaded into a police van, a defiant Mr Bray says: “I’ve got more speakers. These were sacrificial lambs.”
The Standard has approached Scotland Yard for comment.
Mr Bray became famous for playing protests songs on a loudspeaker in Parliament Square during the UK’s tense four-year departure from the European Union. More recently, he has demonstrated against the leadership of Boris Johnson over the partygate scandal and other Government policy.
The footage comes on the same day that sweeping new restrictions on protests were introduced by Home Secretary Priti Patel as part of the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Acts.
It includes giving police new powers to “impose conditions on one-person protests” if senior officers “reasonably believe” the noise it creates “may result in serious disruption to the activities of an organisation in the vicinity, or have a significant, relevant impact on people in the vicinity.”
A new offence of “recklessly causing public nuisance” also came into effect – but officers imposing restrictions on protests must set out their reasoning in writing.
If conditions have been met, a demonstrator can be arrested if they “fail to comply with any conditions they knew or ought to have known had been imposed”. Breaches of the law carry a six month jail sentence or an unlimited fine.
A Downing Street spokesperson defended the change to the law despite critics warning it could silence free speech and curtail the right to protest.
He said: “The government has changed laws so dangerous criminals get the sentences they deserve and are kept behind bars for longer. You’ll have seen the range of sentencing rules that come into force today.
“We’ve always said protesting is an important right within a democracy but I haven’t been able to ask the PM directly about those stories this morning.”
