Brian Haw Brian William Haw ( 7 January 1949 – 18 June 2011 ) was an English protester and peace campaigner who lived for almost ten years in a peace camp in London ' s Parliament Square from 2001 , in a protest against UK and US foreign policy . He began the Parliament Square Peace Campaign before the 2001 United States attacks , and became a symbol of the anti - war movement over the policies of both the United Kingdom and the United States in Afghanistan and later Iraq . At the 2007 Channel 4 Political Awards he was voted Most Inspiring Political Figure . Early life . Haw was born in Woodford Green , Redbridge , a twin and the eldest of five . He grew up in neighbouring Barking and in Whitstable , Kent . His father , who had been one of the first British soldiers to enter the Bergen - Belsen concentration camp , worked in a betting office . He committed suicide by gassing himself when Haw was 13 . Haw was apprenticed to a boat - builder from the age of 16 and then entered the Merchant Navy as a deckhand . Personal life . As an evangelical Christian , Haw visited Northern Ireland during The Troubles as well as the Killing Fields of Cambodia . Haw worked with troubled youngsters in Redditch , Worcestershire , where he lived with his wife Kay and their seven children until he left them in 2001 to begin his Parliament Square protest . The couple divorced in 2003 . Parliament Square protests . On 2 June 2001 , he began camping in Parliament Square in central London in a one - man political protest against war and foreign policy ( initially , the sanctions against Iraq ) . By his own account , he was first inspired to take up his vigil after seeing the images and information produced by the Mariam Appeal , an anti - sanctions campaign . Haw justified his campaign on a need to improve his children ' s future . He only left his makeshift campsite in order to attend court hearings , surviving on food brought by supporters . Support for Haw ' s protest came from former Labour cabinet minister Tony Benn and activist / comedian Mark Thomas . Among the artwork displayed was a Banksy stencil of two soldiers painting over a peace sign and Leon Kuhn ' s anti - war political caricature " 3 Guilty Men " , which , together with Kuhn ' s " The Proud Parents " , Mark Wallinger later displayed in his recreation at the Tate in 2007 . In October 2002 Westminster City Council attempted to prosecute Haw for causing an obstruction to the pavement , but the case failed as Haw ' s banners did not impede movement . The continuous use of a megaphone by Haw led to objections by Members of Parliament who had offices close to Haw ' s protest camp . The House of Commons Procedure Committee held a brief inquiry in summer 2003 which heard evidence that permanent protests in Parliament Square could provide an opportunity for terrorists to disguise explosive devices , and resulted in a recommendation that the law be changed to prohibit them . The Government passed a provision banning all unlicensed protests , permanent or otherwise , in the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005 ( sections 132 to 138 ) ; however , because Mr Haw ' s protest was on - going and residing on Parliament Square prior to the enactment of the Act , it was unclear whether the Act applied to him ( see Legal Action , below ) . In the 2005 general election Haw stood as a candidate in the Cities of London and Westminster in order to further his campaign and oppose the Act which was yet to come into force . He won 298 votes ( 0 . 8 percent ) , making a speech against the ongoing presence of UK troops in Iraq at the declaration of the result . Legal action . As preparation for implementing the new Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005 began , Haw won an application for judicial review on 28 July 2005 , successfully arguing that a technical defect in the act meant it did not apply in his case . The act states that demonstrations must have authorisation from the police " when the demonstration starts " , and Haw asserted that his demonstration had begun before the passage of the act , which was not made retrospective . Although the commencement order made to bring the act into force had made reference to demonstrations begun before the act came into force , there was no power for the commencement order to extend the scope of the act . Haw was joined in December 2005 by Australian born Barbara Grace Tucker who since his death in June 2011 has continued her presence opposite the Houses of Parliament . In the seven years or so since her arrival she has been arrested a remarkable 47 times – usually on a charge of ` unauthorised demonstration ` . The government appealed against the judgement , and on 8 May 2006 the Court of Appeal allowed the appeal and therefore declared that the act did apply to him . The court found that the intent of parliament was clearly to apply to all demonstrations in Parliament Square regardless of when they had begun : In the meantime Haw had applied for permission to continue his demonstration , and received it on condition that his display of placards is no more than 3 m wide ( among other things ) . Haw was unwilling to comply and the police referred his case to the Crown Prosecution Service ; a number of supporters began camping with him in order to deter attempts to evict him . In the early hours of 23 May 2006 , 78 police arrived and removed all but one of Haw ' s placards citing continual breached conditions of the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005 as their reason for doing so . Ian Blair ( head of the Met . police at the time ) later admitted that the operation to remove Haw ' s placards had cost £27 , 000 The actions of the police were criticised by members of the Metropolitan Police Authority at its monthly meeting on 25 May 2006 . Haw appeared at Bow Street Magistrates ' Court on 30 May , when he refused to enter a plea . The court entered a not guilty plea on his behalf , and he was bailed to return to court on 11 July 2006 . At a licensing hearing at Westminster City Council on 30 June 2006 , Haw was granted limited permission to use a loudspeaker in the space allowed to him . On 22 January 2007 Haw was acquitted on the grounds that the conditions he was accused of breaching were not sufficiently clear , and that they should have been imposed by a police officer of higher rank . District Judge Purdy ruled : " I find the conditions , drafted as they are , lack clarity and are not workable in their current form . " Documentary . Brian Haw was featured in several documentaries including 2003 ' s " As Long As It Takes " ( Raj Yagnik ) and the 2006 documentary , " TerrorStorm " . Director and narrator Alex Jones interviewed Haw and even joined in his protest of Parliament by answering Haw ' s inquiry , via megaphone , about the Statue of Liberty by saying she had been picked up on suspicion that she was a member of Al - Qaeda . Haw ( played by an actor ) also appeared briefly in the 2007 drama " The Trial of Tony Blair " . " A Man Called Brian " was a 2005 documentary film by Mahmoud Shoolizadeh about the English peace campaigner Brian Haw and his ten - year , 24 hours a day , anti - war protest in Parliament Square . This film also participated in some international film festivals . He also featured in a RINF documentary with Mick Meaney , in which for the first time in the media he stated that he believed " 9 / 11 was an inside job " . Director of Public Prosecutions v Haw . In the case of Director of Public Prosecutions v Haw , the judgement of the court , delivered by Lord Phillips CJ , included the following : This was an adjourned hearing of an appeal by way of case stated by the Director of Public Prosecutions against a decision of District Judge Purdy in the City of Westminster Magistrates Court on 22 January 2007 . The judge ruled that there was no case for the Respondent , Brian Haw , to answer on a charge of knowingly failing to comply with a condition imposed under Section 134 of the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005 ( ' SOCA ' ) in respect of a demonstration in Parliament Square . The hearing before the Administrative Court was adjourned because Mr Haw had not been served with relevant documents in time to give them proper consideration . Directions hearing , 18 November 2008 . Haw sought a large number of directions from the court on 18 November 2008 . Afer some delay the directions of the court were eventually published in March 2009 : The court was un - persuaded that a full transcript of the hearing was necessary , even though Haw claimed that it would show that the court sidestepped the issue as to the legality of the seizure . Tucker v Director of Public Prosecutions . The case of Tucker v Director of Public Prosecutions , 2007 was an appeal by way of case stated . The appellant , Barbara Tucker , was convicted under Section 132 ( 1 ) ( c ) of the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005 ( SOCPA ) , of being within the jurisdiction of the Central Criminal Court , and carrying on unauthorised demonstration by herself in a public place in a designated area , namely Parliament Square . Her defence was that Haw had invited her to join him in his demonstration . He gave evidence on her behalf to that effect . The magistrate said : " Had I accepted this evidence ( which I did not ) it would have been argued that the allegation that she had ' carried on an unauthorised demonstration by herself . . . ' could not have been made out , and further more ( in my view incorrectly ) that it would provide a defence by saying that as Mr Haw is safe from prosecution anyone who joins him is also safe . " The question posed by the magistrate was : " Was it lawful under section 6 ( 1 ) HRA to convict the appellant ? " The Administrative Court held that SOCPA was not incompatible with the European Convention on Human Rights ( specifically , Articles 10 ( freedom of expression ) and 11 ( freedom of assembly ) ) , and that Tucker ' s conviction was therefore lawful . January 2008 injury and arrest . On 12 January , Haw was observing a protest against the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act , outside Downing Street . Seven people were arrested ( including Haw ) , who said " I was filming the students lying down in the road when one officer stepped forward , as I was walking back , and pushed the camera with his hand . It struck my face . " He accused the police of using " violent and humiliating force " . 2008 London mayoral elections . In December 2007 press releases stated that Haw had declared himself a candidate in the London Mayoral Elections in May 2008 , but eventually he did not stand . On 17 April 2008 he joined Frank Maloney and Winston McKenzie in support of the Christian Choice candidate Alan Craig . 25 May 2010 arrest . On 25 May 2010 the day of the State Opening of Parliament for the new Conservative - Liberal coalition government , Haw was arrested at 8 : 30 am . Illness and death . In September 2010 Haw was diagnosed with lung cancer . On 1 January 2011 he left England to receive treatment in Berlin . Haw , who was described as a chain smoker , continued to smoke cigarettes until his death . Haw died in Germany in the early hours of 18 June 2011 of lung cancer . He is survived by seven children . Reacting to news of Haw ' s death , Tony Benn said " Brian Haw was a man of principle [ . . . ] his death marks the end of a historic enterprise by a man who gave everything to support his beliefs " . At his death Al Jazeera described him as an " unsung hero " . Mark Wallinger said " I admired [ Haw ' s ] single - minded tenacity . His rectitude was a mirror that the people in the building opposite couldn ' t bear . [ . . . ] Now that he ' s gone , who else have we got ? " . The British MP John McDonnell has called for a statue of Haw to be assembled to celebrate peace . British artist Banksy honoured Haw with a tribute on his website . London Assembly Member Jenny Jones called for Westminster Council to erect a blue plaque for Brian Haw immediately , bypassing English Heritage ' s criteria that the person commemorated should have been dead for two decades or passed the centenary of their birth , whichever is the earlier . In culture . In January 2007 , former Turner Prize nominee Mark Wallinger recreated Brian Haw ’ s Parliament Square protest in its entirety as an exhibition at Tate Britain , titled State Britain . Running the length of the Duveen Gallery , " State Britain " was a painstaking reconstruction of the display confiscated by the Metropolitan Police in 2006 . It included 500 weather - worn banners , photos , peace flags , and messages from well - wishers collected by Haw over the duration of the Peace Protest , as well as his self - constructed shelter . In December 2007 Wallinger ' s work won the Turner Prize . The London - based band XX Teens recorded a song " For Brian Haw " , which was included on their 2008 album " Welcome To Goon Island " . The track incorporated a statement by Haw himself about his motivations for the protest . Haw was featured in the short length documentary " Maria : 24hr Peace Picket " by Iranian film director Parviz Jahed , about fellow peace campaigner Maria Gallastegui . In 2009 developed the music theatre production " According to Brian Haw . . . " based on reactions by young people to Haw ' s life , 9 / 11 and the Iraq war . This was performed at the Barbican Theatre , Plymouth . This production was again performed in 2012 at Square Chapel Centre for the Arts in Halifax with a new cast of young people . Zia Trench ' s debut play , " The State We ' re In " , based on Haw ' s life , was performed for the first time at the 2009 Edinburgh Fringe , featuring Michael Byrne in the lead role and directed by Justin Butcher . Trench said : " There is a messianic illusion around him , something so Jesus - like about him . " He has taken on our fight but what has this cost him ? The play looks at the man behind the protest and how battles fought for liberty can cost a man his wife , home and sanity . "