Peace protester marks four years

Mr Haw has fought off several eviction threats

A campaigner who is marking four years of non-stop protest has said he "hates" being camped out in Parliament Square.

Brian Haw, from Redditch, Worcs, began his one-man demonstration against sanctions in Iraq on 2 June 2001.

Since then he has only left his makeshift camp, where he sleeps under a plastic sheet, to attend court for five legal bids to evict him.

Speaking to BBC News, Mr Haw said: "I hate it. But it doesn't matter how you feel, you have to do what's right."

Supporters of Mr Haw - who stood as a candidate in the general election - will mark the anniversary on Thursday.

'Eye-sore'

He said: I live from day-to-day but I hate it, I hate every moment of it. I have young idiots at four in the morning shouting vile and threatening abuse in my face."

A new law has been passed that should have put an end to his protest but so far no-one has tried to move him on.

Surrounded by placards, the father-of-seven frequently uses a megaphone to attack government policy in Iraq. Some MPs claim he is disrupting their work with his noise.

Commons leader Peter Hain has described his camp as an "eye-sore" and the Speaker has asked the police to get the protest removed.

But confusion about who has rights over the square, opposite the Palace of Westminster, had left both the Commons' Speaker and the police powerless to act.

Westminster City Council failed to evict Mr Haw after High Court judge Mr Justice Gray refused to grant an injunction preventing him from obstructing the pavements.

Last month Mr Haw stood in the Parliamentary election in the Cities of London and Westminster seat.