Three ‘red rebels’ join Friends at New Scotland Yard. Photo: The Friend.
Quakers ‘overwhelmed’ with support after police raid
‘You have the right to remain silent.’ - A quip in the satirical magazine Private Eye, following the police raid of Westminster Meeting House.
Quakers have been inundated with messages of support since the police raided Westminster Meeting House to arrest six Youth Demand activists.
Five MPs reportedly attended Westminster Meeting House’s midweek Meeting for Worship (MfW) last week, including: Rachel Blake, MP for Cities of London and Westminster; Ellie Chowns, Green Party MP for North Herefordshire; and three Quaker MPs – Carla Denyer, Green Party MP for Bristol Central; Yuan Yang, Labour MP for Earley and Woodley; and Josh Fenton-Glynn, Labour MP for Calder Valley, who described the raid as ‘heavy-handed’ on social media. The other three Quaker MPs sent their explicit apologies.
Politicians such as Carla Denyer, Ellie Chowns, Jenny Jones, Siân Berry, Zack Polanski and Zoë Garbett – all from the Green Party – also joined hundreds of Quakers in a silent Meeting outside New Scotland Yard last Thursday. Twenty-five similar gatherings were held nationwide and online, bearing witness to the raid on 27 March.
Phil Laurie, facilitator of Quaker Support for Climate Action (QS4CA), which organised the gathering, said: ‘Our aim is to bring love and peace to replace the police violence and demonstrate a different approach to dealing with difficult situations.
‘We are a community of worship. We will not be threatened by force into abandoning our principles. Our Meeting houses will remain open to those that work to build a better future.’
Britain Yearly Meeting (BYM) said that it had been ‘overwhelmed’ with messages from other faiths ‘horrified at the violation of a place of worship’, as well as ‘from people around the world’.
Some of the support came from likely Quaker sympathisers, including journalist George Monbiot and composer Brian Eno, while MP Rachel Blake has formally requested information from the Metropolitan Police on their policy regarding entering places of worship. But the raid also sparked criticism on the other side of the political spectrum, including from Jacob Rees Mogg, former Conservative minister, who told GB News: ‘There has long been a tradition in this country of taking a view that religious spaces should not be invaded by the forces of law and order unless absolutely necessary.’
Luke Taylor, Liberal Democratic MP for Sutton and Cheam, also raised the issue during urgent questions in the House of Commons, while Yvette Cooper, home secretary, addressed the raid on BBC television, emphasising that the police had ‘operational independence’, and declining to comment specifically on the incident.
Even Private Eye magazine chipped into the debate with a cartoon based on the events, featuring a photo of Westminster Meeting house, with a speech bubble saying: ‘You have a right to remain silent.’
Not all Quakers shared the same response to the raid, however, with disagreement on social media about what constitutes ‘peaceful protest’, particularly when harm may be caused to others through tactics such as ‘road-blocking’.
BYM called the police raid ‘a massively disproportionate response to the legitimate concerns of UK citizens’ and seized the momentum to call for the Labour government to repeal the new anti-protest laws that had enabled it to happen. Oliver Robertson, BYM’s head of Witness and Worship, said the raid ‘reflects a growing trend of excessive policing under new laws brought in by the previous government, which are now being enforced by the current administration.
‘Since the introduction of the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 and the Public Order Act 2023, the right to protest has been severely restricted. Vague and sweeping definitions mean that even discussing peaceful protest can be criminalized.
This is not just about the actions of the police but about laws that undermine democracy itself. In a democratic society, people must have the right to assemble and to speak out, even when their views challenge those in power.’
In a message to London Quakers, BYM said: ‘We also hold in the Light communities who regularly experience the sharp end of the criminal justice system.’
