The head of the UK’s leading republican movement and other organisers of an anti-monarchist protest at the coronation have been arrested on King Charles III’s procession route.
Graham Smith, the chief executive of Republic, had been collecting drinks and placards for demonstrators at the main site of the protest on Trafalgar Square when he was stopped with five others by police on St Martin’s Lane in central London.
The group had been walking behind a rental van containing hundreds of placards when they were approached by the police and searched.
Harry Stratton, a director at Republic, who arrived as Smith and the others were detained, said: “They were collecting the placards and bringing them over when the police stopped them. The guys asked why and they were told: ‘We will tell you that once we have searched the vehicle.’ That’s when they arrested the six organisers.
“We asked on what grounds they had been arrested but they wouldn’t say. It is a surprise as we had had a number of meetings with the police. They had been making all the right noises.”
Scotland Yard later said “several” arrests had been made for breach of the peace and conspiracy to cause public disorder, adding that lock-on devices used by protesters to attach themselves to street furniture had been found. The allegation was denied by Republic.
A Met spokesperosn said: “A significant police operation is under way in central London. We have made a number of arrests in the area of Carlton House Terrace. The individuals have been held on suspicion of breaching the peace. Earlier today we arrested four people in the area of St Martin’s Lane. They were held on suspicion of conspiracy to cause public nuisance. We seized lock-on devices.
“A further three people were arrested in the area of Wellington Arch. They were held on suspicion of possessing articles to cause criminal damage. There will be further updates later today.”
Stratton said the organisers of the protest had not possessed lock-on devices. “What would we lock on to? We are just protesting.”
The Met police had tweeted earlier this week that they would have an “extremely low tolerance” of those seeking to “undermine” the day. Under the new Public Order Act, protesters who have an object with the intention of using it to “lock on” are liable to a fine, with those who block roads facing up to 12 months in prison.
Yasmine Ahmed, the UK director of Human Rights Watch, condemned the arrests. “The reports of people being arrested for peacefully protesting the coronation are incredibly alarming. This is something you would expect to see in Moscow not London. Peaceful protests allow individuals to hold those in power to account, something the UK government seems increasingly averse to.”
A video of an exchange with one of those arrested was caught on film. One police officer can be heard saying: “I’m not going to get into a conversation about that, they are under arrest, end of.”
Sacha Deshmukh, Amnesty International UK’s chief executive, said the human rights group had been concerned about Met statements about its “low tolerance” of protests. He said: “We need to see what details emerge around these incidents but merely being in possession of a megaphone or carrying placards should never be grounds for a police arrest.
“Peaceful protest is clearly protected under international human rights law and it’s been worrying to see the police this week making numerous statements about their ‘low tolerance’ for disruption at the coronation. The coronation shouldn’t become yet another excuse for undermining people’s basic human rights in this country and we’re awaiting more details over these concerning reports of arrests.”
Just Stop Oil told the PA Media news agency that approximately 13 protesters had been arrested on the Mall. A spokesperson for the campaign group said five demonstrators were also arrested at Downing Street and one at Piccadilly.
In one exchange caught on camera, the Just Stop Oil campaigner Ben Larsen, 25, told officers: “You’ve searched me and haven’t found shit.”
A police officer responded: “You need to educate yourself on what peaceful protest is.”
Smith’s arrest, at about 7.30am, had come as hundreds of anti-monarchist protesters gathered at Trafalgar Square with large flags and wearing yellow T-shirts as they looked to catch both the eye of the world’s media and that of a king on his coronation day.
Positioned by London’s oldest statue of Charles I, who lost his head to republicans nearly 400 years ago, the protesters were heavily outnumbered but the 2,000 demonstrators lining that part of the procession route made their presence felt with boos and chants of “not my King”.
The crowd had been joined below Nelson’s column by representatives of the Swedish, Dutch and Norwegian republican movements.
Maria Gomez, 39, from Borehamwood, Hertfordshire, said there had been some intimidation aimed at the protesters. “Some were shouting ‘burn the yellow flags’ earlier but we have had intimidation before – there were eggs thrown in 2012,” she said. “People can get very angry with republicans.”
Radical Haslam, 29, a student who had come from Manchester, said he would be “staying safe with the others” at Trafalgar Square.
The protest drew many well-known characters of the anti-monarchy movement, including Patrick Thelwell, 23, who was found guilty last month of a public order offence for throwing five eggs at the king during a visit to York. “I’ve absolutely not brought any eggs,” he said. “My parole officer tells me counter-terrorism is following me.”
The human rights activist Peter Tatchell and Paul Powlesland, the lawyer who was threatened with arrest when holding up a blank piece of paper after the death of the queen, were also in the crowd.
Imogen McBeath, 21, a campaigner linked to the No More Royals group, which says its message is a “declaration from the young, the queer and the dismissed”, said they wanted to make their point peacefully.
McBeath made headlines last month when, with her partner, Riz, they jumped the security rope during a tour of Windsor Castle and sat on a bed first constructed for King Charles II in 1670, kissing, eating junk food and reading Prince Harry’s book Spare.
“This is the biggest monarchist event and so we had to be here,” she said. “But we don’t want to provoke anyone.”
Loretta Caughlin, 56, a restaurant owner from Penzance in Cornwall, said she had been a member of Republic for 17 years. “It was in 2006 that I discovered Republic and realised I’m not the only one. There are a lot of us.”
