Widdecombe chased by asylum protesters

Ann Widdecombe: "It was standard stuff"

A taxi carrying shadow home secretary Ann Widdecombe was surrounded by angry protesters enraged by her attitude towards asylum seekers.

The incident happened as she tried to leave an Edinburgh venue where she had been reading from her novel for the Edinburgh Book Festival.

Waiting protesters surrounded the Conservative MP's group as she left a marquee by a back entrance, accompanied by police officers and security staff.

Miss Widdecombe got into a waiting taxi which pulled away without incident, but it was forced to come to a halt within 30 yards because of a traffic jam.

Fortunately I do not get this very often but you get used to it

Ann Widdecombe

Protesters quickly surrounded the vehicle and attacked it, some striking it with placards while others thumped windows and door panels.

Police officers struggled to clear a path for the taxi, but eventually did so and detained some protesters.

Describing the incident, Miss Widdecombe said: "I was given a police escort to a waiting taxi and I saw about 20 demonstrators.

"When they realised I was leaving they raced down towards the taxi and got round it waving banners.

"The police moved in and pulled them away and effected some arrests. The taxi got away, admittedly at high speed.

"It was standard stuff and the police handled it well."

Heckled

Protesters outside the marquee had heckled Miss Widdecombe throughout the reading from her novel The Clematis Tree, chanting: "Jail the racists not the refugees" and "Refugees are welcome, Widdecombe is not."

Miss Widdecombe told her audience: "Fortunately I do not get this very often but you get used to it.

"The most violent [demonstration] was in Oxford where they had custard pies.

"The books with the custard pie on them sold the best.

"This sort of situation happens quite regularly - it's not a problem."

Everybody has the right to free speech here but surely we should be defending other rights as well

Bill Scott
Refugees Welcome Here

Asked by a member of the audience what she thought about the refugee issue, she said: "I am proud to live in a country where we have freedom of speech.

"One of the reasons we have refugees is because they cannot do that in their own countries."

Bill Scott, of protest organisers Refugees Welcome Here, said: "We thought it was really ironic that Amnesty International have a workshop in there on imprisoned writers and if Ann Widdecombe had her way they would all be thrown into jail here.

"Everybody has the right to free speech here but surely we should be defending other rights as well.

"We do not have links to the other groups who threw the custard pie at her but we would like to get their recipe."

A Lothian and Borders Police spokeswoman declined to give any information about arrests made.