Media caption“They weren’t going to hit me, ” said Jacob Rees-Mogg MP
It resumed: “It is our understanding at this stage that a small group of protesters ended into the lecturing theatre where the affair was mainly attributable to take place via the back doors.
“We is quite clear that these opponents were not UWE Bristol students and did not have tickets for the event.
“We support the democratic privilege to free speech and peaceful protest. However, we strongly condemn the actions of demonstrators who disrupted normal deliberation and behaved in this way.
“There is no place for such action on a university campus or in a civilised society.”
At the situation: James Craig, BBC Somerset
It was due to be a moderately routine phenomenon – Jacob Rees-Mogg was booked to talk to a few hundred students at a ticketed event.
He would’ve spoken for about half an hour before making questions.
Just a few minutes after he started voicing, groupings of demonstrators came into the back of the teach theatre and started exclaiming anti-Conservative rhetoric, very loudly, trying to holler him down.
Rather than halting the incident, or dismissing them, Mr Rees-Mogg walked up to the back of the theatre to try and talk them down.
At that time, various other members of the public got involved, leading to a scuffle.
It ogled to me that Mr Rees-Mogg was actually propagandized and shoved, even though he vows he wasn’t.
But it was a terribly aggressive and surprising scene.
After the brawl, Mr Rees-Mogg said: “Some people who don’t agree with me wanted to make their degree, and I don’t object to this.
“I think we live in a free society and freedom of expression is very important.
“And parties like me, who advocate freedom of expression, approval it when it’s not exactly what we want, as well as when it is what we want.”
Universities Minister Sam Gyimah labelled the protesters’ practice “thuggish”, contributing: “Free addres under the law is fundamental to our democracy.”
He praised Mr Rees-Mogg for “not being cowed into silence”.
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