REVEALED, MILITANT COUPLE IN REES-MOGG STORM
THIS is the moment Jacob Rees- Mogg approaches a masked mob as they heckle him at a university.
Footage shows the Tory MP march up to the hooded protesters and try to reason with them as they shout, ‘No platform for homophobes, no platform for racists,’ in his face.
Mr Rees-Mogg, 48, had been invited to speak to 300 people at the University of the West of England (UWE), Bristol, but it descended into chaos.
Yesterday a middle-class graduate, who once advocated punching ‘Nazi women’, and his Romanian-born girlfriend were identified as two of the Left-wing activists. Footage shows 24-year- old Josh Connor, wearing sunglasses, swinging a punch.
It was apparently in retaliation as he thought his girlfriend Andreea Dumitrache, a 25-year-old master’s student, had been struck in the face by a man in a white shirt.
The couple, joined by seven members of the Bristol Antifascist group,
have been identified as Corbyn supporters living in Bristol.
Miss Dumitrache wrote about the Labour leader in a blog post in 2016, saying: ‘i’m definitely a Jeremy Corbyn fan girl at heart and yes, i’m a bit ashamed of it. But every time a new breath of fresh air comes to politics, i can’t help it, i’m drawn to the underdog that’s speaking the truth.’
Mr Connor – who was seen shouting ‘no platform for sexists’ in Mr rees-Mogg’s face – has apparent links to Momentum. Pages he has ‘liked’ on Facebook include Jeremy Corbyn, Bristol Momentum Youth and Bristol Labour Party.
in the video, Mr Connor can be heard screaming ‘You just punched a woman,’ to a man in a white shirt. Miss Dumitrache later said the man had punched her.
But, identified as the man in white yesterday, Navy veteran Paul Townsley denied hitting anybody.
Mr Townsley, 55, who had been attending the event with his son, a sixth form pupil, said: ‘From the guy in the sunglasses’ body language he was getting more aggressive and getting into Mr reesMogg’s personal space. i didn’t hit anybody. She was too close and i put my hand up to protect myself.’
Three months ago recruitment worker Mr Connor, from Nottingham, was accused of advocating violence against women. in a Twitter debate, asked if women who ‘don’t speak as you want them to’ deserved a punch, he said they did if they ‘speak to invalidate the experience of someone who faces far more oppressive structures than they do’. He added: ‘Same as i’ll punch Nazi women for saying Nazi things.’
His role in Friday’s protest was condemned by his grandmother Jillian Connor, 82, who told The Mail on Sunday: ‘i saw it and i thought, “Surely not. You naughty boy.” He is a very keen socialist, slightly to the Left of Trotsky.
‘i can’t say i’m surprised but i thought [he] was maturing.’
a UWe student who claimed to have been punched said he had reported the incident to police.
During the scuffle, Mr rees-Mogg could be heard saying: ‘Ladies and gentleman please calm down.’ The Brexiteer told Sky News he had ‘never felt threatened or unsafe’.
Yesterday Tory party chairman Brandon Lewis told BBC’s Sunday Politics show that ‘Momentum-supporting thugs’ had ‘tried to silence Conservatives’.
He has also written to Tory members to say that, as a result, the party now planned to send more MPs to speak at universities in a bid to ‘protect free speech’.