Trans activists release new video of Nadhim Zahawi being drowned out by music during Warwick talk

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New video shows heckled Cabinet minister Nadhim Zahawi being drowned out by a mob of trans activists blaring music from outside the lecture hall as he tried to address Warwick University’s Conservative Association.

The Education Secretary was hounded off the Russell Group campus on Friday after dozens of LGBT protesters with trans flags and banners tried to deplatform him to chants of ‘Tory scum’ and ‘Zahawi is a transphobe’.

In a clip shared on social media by Trans Warwick Action, the group which organised the demo, Mr Zahawi can be seen trying to deliver a talk to young Conservatives as the protesters blast music outside the lecture hall, while a caption underneath reads: ‘Sorry, we can’t hear you’.

The video then shows security allegedly pushing the activists as text underneath states: ‘We gave them space to leave but they pushed us anyway’. 

A Warwick University spokesperson told MailOnline: ‘It’s important to recognise that students have the right to lawful protest – and to date we have received no allegations of any assault, damage or threats relating to the event.’

Writing on Instagram, Trans Warwick Action said Mr Zahawi’s views ‘transfer into actions and as violence against trans people’. 

The Education Secretary had been asked to speak to students by Warwick University’s Conservative Association. Mr Zahawi has been spearheading a new Freedom of Speech Bill which would allow students’ unions and universities to be fined or even sued for censorship and no-platforming speakers.

It comes after it yesterday emerged that Joel Cooper, the son of Labour grandees Yvette Cooper and Ed Balls, was one of the activists who heckled Mr Zahawi. In video posted by the Warwick Labour society, Joel Cooper interrupts the Education Secretary’s Q&A to heckle him over his trans views. He then sits down to cheers from fellow Labour activists. Later, he shared the clip to his Instagram story, Guido Fawkes reported.

Taking to Twitter, Mr Cooper claimed that he and other activists were ‘blacklisted’ from the event ‘purely because they were LGBT +’ and accused the Conservative Association of ‘censorship’.

Mr Zahawi later defended his right to freedom of speech, tweeting: ‘His right to free speech is vital too. 

‘We will never deny biology but we must always show kindness, tolerance and love when discussing these issues.’

Trans Warwick Action said: ‘On Friday we disrupted an event by Warwick Tories hosting Nadhim Zahawi. In his time as Secretary of State for Education he has suggested that teachers out their students to their teachers. This advice will lead to abuse from parents and makes existing as a trans youth more impossible than his government has already tried to make it.

‘Throughout the event we blasted music from outside the venue to express our opinions about Zahawi and his views. Before leaving the venue we provided a clear space for him to leave. However, security decided to push through PR to allow him to leave the building, leaving some protestors bruised and hurt.

‘There is no calm response to be had to people like this believing they can walk onto campus without resistance. He can speak, sure, but whether we or other students have to listen is another question. As a minister of the given, his views transfer into actions and as violence against trans people.’

In a statement before the talk, Warwick Pride branded Mr Zahawi a ‘reactionary harmful transphobe’ after he defended Kathleen Stock, a former Sussex lecturer who was hounded for her views on trans rights and left the university following protests against her.

The group added that the Education Secretary ‘plays a significant role in institutional transphobia’ in the UK, ‘trivialises’ the effects of outing LGBT+ young people to their parents and claimed he has used the ‘common transphobic dog-whistle ‘adult human female”.

The Conservative association’s chairman and politics student Tom Garth, 20, described the chaos explaining the protestors were ‘outside the lecture hall, banging on the doors’ and also ‘blasting music’.

‘As Zahawi was leaving the second, members-only talk, protesters rushed towards him and one landed a blow onto one of our executive members’ head, our events secretary, although he wasn’t injured,’ he told The Daily Telegraph.

‘Then when Zahawi was exiting with security, they continued and tried to follow him all the way to his car, trying to get as close as possible to him.’

Condemning the protest, a spokesman for the University of Warwick Conservative Association said the protestors’ ‘anger and hatred’ demonstrated how they ‘actually feel towards those they disagree with’.

‘There is a general unwillingness to exist alongside those with a difference of opinion on topics that should be open for legitimate discussion,’ they said.

‘Chants of ‘Tory scum’ were again unsurprising, due to the role models these protesters rely on for their worldviews.’

In another statement, they added: ‘The UCWA supports the rights to freedom of speech and expression for everyone, regardless of political affiliation. It is a shame that, on this occasion, the intention of many protestors was not to express their own views but to prevent the Secretary of State from expressing his.

‘A healthy democracy requires tolerance of and engagement with those with whom you disagree, yet many of those protesting seem to believe it is unacceptable for Conservatives to exist on campus.’

A Department for Education source told the Mail that the incident proves the need for the new legislation and was ‘more evidence against those who say there is no such thing as a chilling culture on campus’.

University officials are understood to be making a formal complaint to Warwick students’ union regarding the incident.

A Warwick University spokesperson said: ‘Academic freedom and freedom of speech have always been fundamental to who we are and what we do as a university. Encouraging free and open debate is critical to learning, challenging assumptions and understanding different perspectives.

‘Mr Zahawi was invited as a guest speaker by the Conservative Association, and this was approved by the Students’ Union, which operates independently of the University.

‘We were aware of plans for a protest at the meeting on Friday evening and our community safety team ensured that the event went ahead safely – despite it being noisy, disruptive and hostile outside.

‘We always urge our students to respect people’s views even when they are different to their own.’

MailOnline can also reveal that the LGBT radicals who sit on Warwick Pride’s executive are undergraduate activists who use multiple gender pronouns and have a range of identities including transgender, ‘genderfae’ and ‘neptunic’.

Vice-President Zuzanna Charkowska is an economics, politics and international studies who identifies as a lesbian and has demonstrated in her native Poland with gay rights group Campaign Against Homophobia. On Warwick Pride’s website, she lists her interests as ‘movies, politics, Taylor Swift, embroidery’ and ‘watching video essays on YouTube’. She also says that she is determined to ‘continue creating a safe space for queer students at Warwick’.

Campaigns Officer Raul-Rafael Nemeş is studying Life Sciences with Global Sustainable Development at Warwick. He identifies as ‘gay, queer, questioning’ and his general interests include ‘visual arts like painting and sculpture’ and ‘the environment, climate change and social justice’. He says he wants to ‘promote awareness around LGBTQ+ issues on campus and beyond, learn more about campaigning’.

Less is known about Warwick Pride’s president, who goes by the first name Mia. A mathematics and physics undergraduate, Mia identifies as ‘transgender, non-binary, genderfae, asexual, demiromantic’ and ‘neptunic’. Their interests include ‘music, electronics, programming, arcana, community management and moderation’ – and ‘Lego’.

The communications officer Aurore is studying English Literature & History and identifies as ‘woman, lesbian’. She says that she wants to promote Warwick Pride’s events ‘and help reaching out many queer students at Warwick to make their experience more safe and enjoyable’.

And the Treasurer and Trans & Aro/Ace Community Officer have used avatars in place of a photo of themselves on Warwick Pride’s website. Treasurer Sylvia is studying MORSE and identifies as ‘woman, transgender, predominantly heterosexual’. The Trans & Aro/Ace Community Officer goes by the name ‘Uke/Jupiter’, is studying Physics with Astrophysics and has listed ‘dinosaurs’ as a general interest.

Warwick Pride declined to comment.

Do YOU know who was at the protest? Email jack.wright@mailonline.co.uk