Tory Brexiteer MP David Davies walks through pro-EU protesters with GoPro camera to document abuse
Conservative also condemns harassment of colleague Anna Soubry by right-wing protesters
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Your support makes all the difference.A Leave-supporting MP has been spotted outside parliament carrying a GoPro camera to document abuse from protesters.
David Davies, the Welsh Conservative MP, said Brexiteers had been subjected to harassment by Remain-backing opponents for the past year.
Speaking to The Independent, he said: “People have started to notice it now because it seems to be going on on all sides, but it’s been going on for 12 months as far as I’m concerned.
“Just before I did the Kay Burley interview before Christmas, [there was] somebody coming in my face swearing at me while somebody else was recording – so obviously I couldn’t swear back because that would have been edited.
“What some of these people do is shout out insults and then film it. So what I’m going to do is exactly what these people are doing, which is record everything, so I can’t be the victim of malicious allegations.”
Mr Davies was speaking a day after his Tory colleague Anna Soubry, a Remain supporter, was subjected to chants of “Soubry is a Nazi” and followed along the street by protesters shouting abuse.
He described those actions as “totally disgraceful”, adding he feared it could prove toxic for the pro-Brexit campaign.
“I totally and utterly condemn that kind of behaviour,” he said. “That kind of behaviour will undermine our cause so they’re certainly no friends of ours.”
While speaking to The Independent, Mr Davies become involved in an argument with anti-Brexit campaigner who accused him of making unfounded accusations against pro-EU demonstrators.
“See, there you are,” he said afterwards. “It’s for my protection.”
Commons Speaker John Bercow said the incident involving Ms Soubry and others like it in recent weeks were “toxic attacks”, in a letter to the Metropolitan Police.
He demanded that commissioner Cressida Dick’s officers tackle ”aggressive, threatening and intimidating behaviour” towards politicians and journalists outside parliament.
Scotland Yard said it would heighten its presence in the area following Monday’s incident.
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