Kemi Badenoch demands a stop to noisy Downing Street protests branding them a 'national embarrassment'

The Prime Minister’s resignation speech on Monday morning was largely drowned out due to shouts from outside Downing Street, where protestors including Steve Bray played Beethoven’s ‘Ode to Joy’ as he gave his remarks to the nation.

Sir Keir previously told Classic FM that it was one of his favourite pieces of music.

Last year Mr Bray was found not guilty of failing to comply with a direction given to stop him playing music in Parliament Square, after police tried to intervene and seized his speakers.

He’s been a regular protestor outside Parliament, regularly blasting out loud music and shouting on a megaphone.

Now, the Tory leader, Ms Badenoch has written to the Met Chief over his "aggressive style of protest… is anti-social, a nuisance, and a national embarrassment.”

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She argued the case should have been appealed by the Met Police, and says Mr Bray has “continued his anti-social campaign that shames our democracy”.

In a copy of the letter, seen by LBC, she asks what more is being done to “stop this public nuisance”.

She says: “Do you consider the powers you have under the Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act or other legislation to be sufficient to keep good order in Whitehall in the national interest?

"Further, is it the position of the Metropolitan Police that the failure of the prosecution of Mr Bray in 2024 means that your officers are now entirely unable to prevent his noisy protests?

"Have you taken legal advice as to scenarios where his Article 10 and 11 rights would not outweigh the rights of others in the community, for example the interest of the British people in hearing the resignation speech of a prime minster?”

She says the Tories want to leave the ECHR which will mean "ludicrous rulings” like this would be a thing of the past.

Otherwise, "we will be left at the mercy of imbeciles with nothing better to do than spend their day terrorising politicians, civil servants, and members of the public for their own amusement."

Steve Bray, an anti-Brexit protestor, has told LBC he knows he’s “marmite… some like me, some hate me.

“The people at the gate wouldn’t have been able to hear the PM anyway.

“I’m not in a position to know the volume down in Downing Street as I’m playing it. I didn’t have the amp on full volume.

“I had to weigh it up.

“It wasn’t his final announcement…. I listened later, I could hear every word. This was my goodbye to Keir Starmer.

“This is part of what we do in Britain."