Police escort to get Mogg past protests by hate mob
TWO senior Tories were heckled by furious protesters outside the Conservative Party conference yesterday and had to be escorted by police officers into the venue.
Footage showed Business Secretary Jacob Rees-Mogg and Lichfield MP Michael Fabricant being angrily confronted by activists in Birmingham on the opening day of the event.
Shouts of ‘Tories out’ and ‘shame on you’ rang out as the two politicians walked into the conference centre, while a simultaneous anti-Tory protest was held by a Left-wing campaign group nearby.
Speaking afterwards, both Mr Rees-Mogg and Mr Fabricant defended the right of the demonstrators to make their views heard.
The Business Secretary, who faced a hostile reception as he crossed Victoria Square in Birmingham city centre yesterday morning, played down the protests as a ‘fact of democracy’. He told Sky News: ‘There have been protests at Tory conferences since time immemorial, it’s nothing new. They’re shouting but it’s perfectly peaceful. And the right to peaceful expression of your view is fundamental to our constitution.’
Last night Mr Fabricant denied suggestions that he was attacked or pushed over on his way into the centre, but said he took an air horn off a noisy demonstrator.
He added that he was not physically targeted but ‘directed wrongly right into the middle’ of the protesting crowd.
Mr Fabricant tweeted: ‘I think the protesters thought I was deliberately provoking them. But no one touched me. Just shouted abuse. They were just loud!
‘One protester tried to blow a plastic horn in my ear while I was walking. I asked him to stop, but he refused. So I grabbed his horn and threw it away. I think he was more shocked than me!
‘As far as I could see, the crowd was noisy but self-disciplined. We live in a democracy and people have every right to protest.’
Campaign group The People’s Assembly organised a rally to protest the conference in Victoria Square yesterday. The line-up included RMT boss Mick Lynch and former shadow minister Laura Pidcock. They said: ‘The people of Birmingham sending a clear message to Jacob Rees-Mogg.’
As speakers took to the stage, there were chants of ‘Tories are not welcome here’ and ‘Tory scum out of Brum’.
Labour MP for Birmingham Yardley Jess Phillips urged calm before the conference, saying: ‘Remember that Tories are currently protesting themselves and need to be allowed to dance on the head of that pin.
‘Vitriol will be a gift to them. Let all the protest be peaceful.’