Anti-Brexit activist Steve Bray, known for his strong musical protests in front of the House of Commons, has returned to Westminster, although facing criminal charges under anti-protest laws.
Police officers tried to stop his regular protest near parliament and seized his equipment when the protest laws came into force on Tuesday.
Bray told reporters that he had ordered new amplifiers to make his protests even stronger and was considering touring Westminster Palace with a rickshaw.
The former Liberal Democrat candidate said police had threatened to take away his amplifier again. But on Wednesday, his protest consisted of the release of the 1975 song Bay City Rollers, Bye Bye Baby, with the lyrics “bye bye Boris”.
Bray, a former full-time coin trader protesting with donations from many people, posted videos on Twitter showing officials approaching him near Parliament Square on Tuesday. Its sound system has been confiscated.
How Steve Bray interrupts live TV shows with posters, flags and shouts – video
The Police, Crime, Sentences and Courts Act, which went into effect Tuesday, introduces a crime of intentionally or recklessly causing public unrest in an attempt to quell destructive guerrilla protests such as those used by climate crisis activists.
Bray said he planned to get off a traffic island to the sidewalk on the other side of the road after police showed him a map of the designated area where noisy demonstrations are prohibited by law.
“I have more amplifiers ordered and I will connect four amplifiers together, not this week, maybe next week, and it will be twice as strong as it was here to compensate for the move in the corner,” he told PA Media. “I’ll actually connect eight together.”
He said he was considering walking around Parliament Square in a rickshaw to avoid his police confiscating his amplifier again. “Maybe I’ll hang it on my back, but it’s heavy, or I’ll get on a bike. We’ll take a rickshaw and get a little lost. ”
The Sofia police announced that Bray’s equipment had been confiscated under section 145 of the Social Responsibility for Police Reform Act 2011, which gives forces the right to seize items used for prohibited activities in Parliament Square. This includes working with amplified sound equipment in the controlled area.
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