Anti-Brexit campaigner Steve Bray is facing a criminal trial over claims he flouted a police ban by placing amplifiers in the street next to Parliament Square.
The 55-year-old activist from Port Talbot is well-known in Westminster for his noisy protests, shouts of ‘Stop Brexit’, and his habit of playing music and holding placards as politicians conduct media interviews outside Parliament.
Bray – dubbed the ‘Stop Brexit Guy’ – was responsible for playing D:Ream’s New Labour anthem ‘Things Can Only Get Better’ in May 2024 at the same moment that Rishi Sunak announced the General Election in the rain outside Downing Street.
The protester has now been charged with a criminal offence over a run-in with police in Parliament Square two months earlier, in March this year.
It is alleged Bray placed amplifiers within a zone around the Houses of Parliament after allegedly being warned not to by police.
A video of police confiscating the speakers on March 20 was posted on YouTube, showing officers stating they had given Bray a map showing the exclusion zone.
As the incident unfolded on a traffic island in Parliament Street, Bray is heard suggesting the officers are “obstructing a legitimate protest” and “stamping on a democratic protest”.
At one stage, he shouts in an officer’s face “f***ing corrupt as hell” and later says to the officers: “Absolute disgrace to your uniforms.”
Bray appeared in the dock at Westminster magistrates court on Monday to plead not guilty to failing without reasonable excuse to comply with a direction given under the Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act 2011 “re prohibited activities in Parliament Square”.
It is said he had been told “not to start doing a prohibited activity, namely playing amplified equipment, in the controlled area of Parliament Square, London”.
The incident happened on a traffic island where anti-Brexit and anti-Tory demonstrators had set up camp.
Bray, representing himself at the hearing, told the court a map had previously been provided by police showing where not to protest, and this is why they chose the traffic island.
“There was a map given for the area”, he said. “I believe they altered the map at some point.
“I don’t understand in law how they changed the map.”
He said his protests are “anti-Brexit and anti-Tory government”, adding: “Protest is about sound and vision, not about obstruction.”
He said he and his allies do not glue themselves to anything or block roads, and told the court: “We stick to the law as we know it.”
Bray was set free on unconditional bail until a trial at City of London magistrates court on November 11.
