Former EastEnders star told not to leave theatre because of pro-Palestinian protests

Actress Tracy-Ann Oberman has revealed she was advised against leaving a London theatre because of pro-Palestinian protests taking place outside.

The star, who is playing Shylock in a West End production of The Merchant Of Venice, is Jewish and has been a vocal campaigner against anti-Semitism.

On Saturday evening – a day after Rishi Sunak’s speech pledging to combat extremism – she said she had been told not to leave the Criterion Theatre due to the protests.

The Met made 12 arrests at nearby Trafalgar Square: one for the theft of an Israeli flag; one for assaulting an emergency worker; one for being drunk and disorderly; and nine for failing to comply with the section 35 dispersal order. (Yesterday’s weekly ‘action’ was local demonstrations focused on Barclays Bank. There can’t have been many of them; too many local branches of Barclays are now shut or about to shut. Protest while you can!)

The former EastEnders star, 57 said in a tweet directed at the Prime Minister and Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer: “Another Saturday post matinee and I have been asked not to step out the theatre because of all the demonstrations and marches going on. London 2024 – ridiculous isn’t it.”.

A crowd of about 150 protesters, organised by the fringe Palestinian Pulse organisation, made their way to the Houses of Parliament on Saturday and were heard chanting: “From the river, to the sea”.

About 30 officers watched on in central London as the protesters repeatedly shouted what the Campaign Against Antisemitism has previously described as “genocidal language”.

When The Telegraph asked one police officer why the chant was allowed, he said: “It depends on the context.”