Protesters sidelined before Tony Blair appears at Iraq inquiry

Scotland Yard has imposed last-minute conditions on anti-war activists planning a demonstration when Tony Blair appears before the Chilcot inquiry tomorrow. A senior officer tasked with policing the event wrote to the organisers today stating he was "unable to give authority" to their proposed protest site because it is on private land. Campaigners from the Stop the War Coalition, who will gather from 8am at the QEII Centre in Westminster, where the ex-prime minister is giving evidence, had hoped to occupy an area of grass immediately in front of the building where protests have taken place in the past. But the centre's security officials have objected to the demonstration site. Superintendent David Hartshorn, from the Metropolitan police's CO11 public order unit, told activists he had been forced to impose conditions on the protest. Demonstrators will instead be directed to Storey's Gate, a street adjacent to the centre. Protest organisers were talking up the prospects of a high turnout and expect numbers to build towards the end of the afternoon when the session ends and Blair emerges from the building. "I think [the police] are going to corral people into the sidestreets," said Stop the War's Andrew Burgin. "I think the aim is to get Tony Blair in, in full view of the cameras, without demonstrators being there. I'm sure that Blair's security will be insisting that nobody is within throwing distance."