‘Stop Brexit Man' apologises for ‘intimidating' Tory staffers with music

The Guardian

10-04-2025

On a traffic island in Westminster, he played a song titled 'Brexit Tragedy' to the tune of The Beatles' Yellow Submarine, serenading MPs with the words: 'We all live in a Brexit tragedy, a Brexit tragedy, a Brexit tragedy.'
Now, the anti-Brexit protester Steve Bray has apologised after hearing in court that his music made Suella Braverman's chief of staff feel 'exhausted', 'intimidated' and 'harassed'.
Bray, who regularly plays his music outside parliament, became known as 'Stop Brexit Man' because he repeatedly interrupted news broadcasts, shouting 'stop Brexit'.
The 56-year-old was in court after allegedly flouting a police ban by playing anti-Conservative and anti-Brexit edits of The Muppet Show and Darth Vader's theme tunes through amplifiers on 20 March last year.
The music was part of his regular protest before prime minister's questions each Wednesday, the City of London magistrates court heard.
Susan Colson, the chief of staff for Braverman, the former home secretary, said she would arrive early on Wednesdays 'so I had a little period of time which was quite peaceful'.
Describing her job as 'quite complex', she said: 'You've got to concentrate, you've got to think what you are doing, so I did quite well until about 10 o'clock,' which was roughly when Bray would turn on the music.
'You couldn't ignore it' and 'really I could only stand it for about two or three hours or so', she said.
'By the time it came to lunchtime I was quite exhausted, and intimidated and harassed, and I just wanted to go home.'
She continued: 'You feel a real victim of this.'
An office manager to then Conservative MP Anna Firth also told the court: 'Wednesday is always the worst day of the week because we knew what we were going to be subjected to.'
After hearing witnesses describe the negative impact of his music, heard as high as the sixth floor in nearby buildings, Bray apologised.
During cross-examination, he told Colson: 'I would like to say sorry if you felt intimidated, that was never our intention.'
The regular anti-Brexit demonstration has since been moved outside the controlled area, 10 metres away from the traffic island. Bray said they would have relocated there at the time had officers asked them to do so.
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The prosecution alleges his music played in total for 40 minutes on 20 March.
Police approached Bray on the traffic island at about 11.20am and said he was prohibited from playing the amplifiers in the controlled area, the court heard.
The music resumed intermittently and just over an hour later, officers seized the speakers, the court was told.
Bray, from Port Talbot, south Wales, has denied 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'.
The defendant said he has never previously been arrested or charged for protesting.
The judge will give his verdict on 14 April at Westminster magistrates court.