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PM must respond to ‘injustices’ after elderly protester held outside Parliament


By PA News

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Broxbourne MP Sir Charles Walker raising a point of order in the Commons (House of Commons/PA)

The Prime Minister has been urged to “end these injustices now” after a Conservative MP said he witnessed an “elderly lady peacefully protesting” about Covid restrictions get arrested outside Parliament.

A video has emerged on social media website Twitter of Broxbourne MP Sir Charles Walker witnessing an arrest in Westminster on Tuesday afternoon.

Raising a point of order, Sir Charles told the Commons: “I have just witnessed an elderly lady peacefully protesting with a handful of other people be arrested and carried spread-eagle to a police van just outside the precinct of the House of Commons.

“This is a disgrace. This is un-British. It is unconstitutional and this Government, our Prime Minister needs to end these injustices now.

“Madam Deputy Speaker, will you bring the Prime Minister and/or the Home Secretary here today to sort this out?

“She was an old lady robbed of her dignity for having the courage to protest about having her fundamental rights and those of my constituents and others removed.”

Responding to the point of order, deputy Commons speaker Dame Rosie Winterton said: “I thank the honourable gentleman for his point of order.

“I can see that this is obviously an extremely distressing situation.

“I shall of course ensure that the Speaker (Sir Lindsay Hoyle) is aware of the honourable gentleman’s comments.

“But I also know that we have ministers here who I’m sure will ensure that his comments are fed back and his very strong views on the incident that happened.”

Tom Ridgway, who witnessed the incident, told the PA news agency: “I saw an elderly woman, apparently an anti-lockdown protester, being bundled into the back of a police van at 2pm outside the entrance to Parliament.

“I only saw one other protester who was shouting, it didn’t seem to be an organised protest.”

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