Respect MP George Galloway’s appearance at UCLU Debating Society’s ‘This House has no confidence in the United Nations Security Council’ event drew strong criticism from various student groups and sparked protest from members of UCLU’s Women’s Network. A disruption of the lecture led to an alleged assault on UCLU Women’s Officer Beth Sutton, and co-protestor Annie Tidbury being physically removed from the debate.
The two women distributed leaflets before the debate, accusing Galloway of being a ‘rape apologist’ for his defence of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, who was accused of rape in 2012. Galloway suggested in a podcast that the allegations against Assange “don’t constitute rape”and were the result of mere “bad sexual etiquette.” Once the debate had begun, the protestors walked on stage to challenge Galloway, calling him a “disgrace.”
Sutton confronted those on stage and was met by Galloway’s angry wife, who in an extremely passionate defence of her husband allegedly began to choke the officer. The day after, Sutton was diagnosed with whiplash.
She commented: “I was physically strangled by Galloway’s wife. I am shocked that security chose to remove an elected officer and a student who pays to attend this university instead of a member of the public.” A spokesman for Galloway and his wife denied the assault. Sutton added: “We chose to take direct action as we only found out about the event the day before. I will be looking at no platform policies to include rape apologists.”
Tidbury was removed by members of UCL security: “As I was backing away towards the door, the security guard grabbed me from behind and half-pushed, half-carried me out.” She asserted that she will be making a formal complaint about her treatment.
Reactions to the protest were divided; a short-lived ‘Vote Beth Out’ twitter account was created but gained little support and was suspended at the time of writing. However, Sutton’s former opponent for Women’s Officer and UCLU Conservative Society’s Secretary Helen Chandler-Wilde said: “UCLU outwardly supports freedom of speech on campus, whether Galloway’s or Beth’s. However why she sabotaged the event which she herself could have vetoed is baffling. There was plenty of chance for her to make a floor speech or comments throughout the night. She has no right to shout her views above everyone else’s – it’s just plain rude.”
Ms Chandler-Wilde appears in the video of the event and alleges she was breaking up the confrontation between Sutton and Galloway’s wife.
Prior to the event, Debating Soc drew flak from some of its members for booking Galloway to speak. However, the society argued that whilst his appearancen “might not sit right with some members of the UCL community… the best way to critique an opinion is to have it publicly challenged through critical, intelligent argument.” After The Cheese Grater spoke to Galloway’s press officer, who sounded suspiciously similar to Galloway himself, he revealed that he as not put off returning to UCL. He is in fact provisionally booked to appear for the Energy Society in March.