Reform UK MP Lee Anderson has called for greater transparency around donations to career activists such as Steve Bray, after the anti-Brexit campaigner was cleared of breaking protest laws today. The music-blaring Remainer, who has become a frequent sight in Westminster’s parliament square over the past eight years, had his speakers confiscated by the Met Police last year.
Police approached Bray on the traffic island at around 11.20am, minutes before Mr Sunak arrived ahead of Prime Minister’s Questions, handed him a map and a notice that warned he is prohibited from playing the speakers in the controlled area under a by-law, the court heard. The music resumed intermittently and shortly after 12.33pm officers seized the speakers, his trial at City of London Magistrates’ Court was told. After the not guilty verdict, Mr Bray described the outcome as “A very important victory today at Westminster magistrates for all protest whatever your views or protest.”
However Reform UK MP Lee Anderson, who has often come to verbal blows with the activist while walking through Westminster, today called for changes to election donation laws which allows activists like Mr Bray to avoid having to declare where their financial support comes from.
Mr Anderson told the Express: “As well as being a public nuisance, Steve Bray is also known as a sponging parasite who relies on dimwitted do-gooders to subsidise his lifestyle.”
“I suspect Bray is probably a person of interest to the HMRC as are many others who scrounge an existence through political campaigning. Its time for transparency and people like Bray should publish all their donations just like a charity has to.
“I suspect he has trousered hundreds of thousands of pounds. It’s about time he spent some of it on new clothes and toiletries.”
Steve Bray has relied on public donations since he began protesting against Brexit with a loudhailer in 2017.
This money has primarily come from online fundraisers, which have allowed him to live a lavish lifestyle and dedicate his time to political protesting without the need for a job.
In January 2019, as Brexit tensions reached their peak, he was raking in enough money to rent a luxury mansion in the heart of Westminster.
He moved into a £6m townhouse on the same street as Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg, at a cost of £4,500 a week.
Mr Bray was able to afford this after asking members of the public to provide him with more than £12,000 to fund the house for two months in the run up to Britain’s then-exit date of March 29.
However he raked in around £70,000 following his call to arms, with it being reported that some of the money came from then-Remainer Charlie Mullins, the Pimlico Plumbing millionaire who has since switched to backing Reform UK.
Despite Britain’s exit from the EU in 2020, Mr Bray continued blaring his music until the police intervened in 2022 thanks to new legislation by the Tories.
This then sparked a surge in new donations, after the Tory-hating activist condemned the law as “fascist”.
The 2022 confiscation of his sound equipment sparked a surge of around £150,000, taking the total raised to over £240,000 in just two years.
These came from around 12,000 different donors, averaging about £20 per person.
In June 2022 James Cleverly claimed: “He is paid from anonymous sources to harass MPs.”
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