THE protester who was aggressively kicked out of Rachel Reeves’ speech at Labour conference described the experience as “brutal”.
“There was a bit of grabbing on the neck, which was pretty shocking,” he said – showing The National a series of red marks on his neckline.
“I wasn't expecting that. And then also, the handcuffs caused a bit of damage on my wrist.”
It was a moment that dominated today’s coverage of Rachel Reeves’ maiden speech as Chancellor – where she attempted to strike a more optimistic tone about the UK’s economy after weeks of announcements of cuts.
But shortly after Reeves began her speech, the protester, who does not want to be named, and a fellow activist from campaign group Climate Resistance, unfurled a banner reading “Still backing polluters, still arming Israel – we voted for change."
He then shouted "I thought we were voting for change Rachel”. It wasn’t long after that security swamped them.
“It was brutal. We were right in the front with all of the delegates, the councillors – not a popular audience.
“Even as I stood up, I heard someone behind me saying ‘sit down’ and grabbing my leg. Lots of booing and all that – which we had sort of expected but it was still very intense.”
What he didn’t expect, though, was to be grabbed around the neck (above), nor what followed.
“We were sort of wrenched. There was a bit of grabbing on the neck, which was pretty shocking,” he said.
The protester then chanted “Free Palestine” back into the hall when he said the security guard holding him put him in a headlock.
“He [then] said ‘you weasel’ which has never happened to me before. And I’ve done this sort of thing a few times so it was quite shocking.”
When asked by The National (above) why he chose to protest in this way at a high-profile event like Labour conference and the Chancellor’s speech, the protester said it was important to offer a “counter narrative” to Labour branding themselves as the self-styled “party of change”.
“There's some really important issues that they're not changing on,” he said.
“One is the continued licence and sale of arms to Israel whilst they're committing genocide on the Palestinian people.
“Another is the continued roll back on important green pledges – we know how urgent that situation is.”
In response to the interruption, Reeves said: “This is a changed Labour Party, a Labour Party that represents working people, not a party of protest.”
The protester took issue with that assertion as well.
“[Labour] use that line a lot. I think it is slightly disrespectful to the origins of the labour movement itself. A lot of the rights that we take for granted were won hundreds of years ago by the same movement that is now criticising our exercise of that same means of protest.”
The protester added that, to the contrary, the way he was ejected was more than anything a king of “radicalising moment”.
“It needs to happen because you have to speak truth to power and you have to hold people in power to account for their actions.”
