By Anti-lockdown and anti-vaccine protests take place in London over the weekend
Demonstrations have been taking place in London in recent days with people protesting against lockdown, the Covid-19 vaccines and vaccine passports.
Protestors made an attempt to “invade” Westfield shopping centre in London, with hundreds more gathering in Parliament Square.
Videos posted to Twitter show the crowd trying to take over the shopping centre, which is situated in Shepherd’s Bush.
Anti lockdown and anti vaccine passport protest reaches west London’s Westfield shopping centre #antilockdownprotest pic.twitter.com/BUc512hEQG
— Joe O'Brien (@thisisjoeob) May 29, 2021
Police attempted to block the entrance, but this didn’t stop the protestors.
However, the “invasion” inside the shopping centre was short-lived, with the protest being cleared from the area after 20 minutes by police with batons.
Police now trying to contain anti-lockdown protests inside Westfield, West London pic.twitter.com/5DAzRaBtdi
— Julian Druker (@Julian5News) May 29, 2021
Meanwhile, hundreds more protesters took over Parliament Square on Saturday. Many people had travelled from other parts of the country to be part of the demonstration.
People in the crowd claimed that the Covid-19 pandemic is a “hoax”, while others protested against the concept of vaccine passports.
There were placards that read: “My body, my choice”.
Several people set off smoke bombs and one launched a firework.
Metropolitan Police took to social media to urge the public to “comply with the restrictions” that apply to large gatherings.
They warned people that if they “don’t follow the rules” they could be at risk of committing a criminal offence.
We have issued an open letter to those organising or participating in the various large public gatherings expected to take place in London today. pic.twitter.com/j6XhkQGozN
— Metropolitan Police Events (@MetPoliceEvents) May 29, 2021
The lockdown restrictions are set to be fully lifted on 21 June – although scientist Professor Ravi Gupta is warning that the UK is in the “third wave” of Coronavirus infections.
Asked on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme whether the UK was already seeing a third wave of Covid infections, Professor Gupta said: “Yes, there has been exponential growth in the number of the new cases and at least three-quarters of them are the new (Indian) variant.
“Of course the numbers of cases are relatively low at the moment – all waves start with low numbers of cases that grumble in the background and then become explosive, so the key here is that what we are seeing here is the signs of an early wave.”
The professor – who is a member of the government’s New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group (Nervtag) – said ending restrictions in June should be delayed “by a few weeks whilst we gather more intelligence”.
Environment Secretary George Eustice also said the government could not rule out a delay to the planned lockdown easing.
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