What happened?
On the evening of Thursday 5 March 2026, Metropolitan Police officers raided Westminster Meeting House for the second time in less than a year, arresting 15 young people who had hired a room for nonviolent direct action training with a group called Take Back Power.
We are concerned about the welfare of all those arrested and have expressed to the police our concern about the practice of releasing people, including young women, in the middle of the night after public transport has stopped. One of those arrested suffered a panic attack and was treated by a paramedic before being de-arrested. The remaining 14 were taken to Brixton and Walworth police stations. No one has yet been charged.
The process for agreeing this hire
It is a longstanding principle of Quakers to support those working peacefully for a more just world, including groups who might struggle to find space elsewhere. This is not a recent position: it reflects over 350 years of Quaker witness, rooted in the belief that faith and action are inseparable.
Westminster Meeting House operates under the hiring policies set by London Quakers Property Trust (LQPT), which were reviewed and updated specifically in response to a similar raid last year, involving a group called Youth Demand.
The hirers for this event completed the standard booking form, which includes an affirmation to a commitment of nonviolence. The purpose of the session was “training in nonviolent direct action”. At the time of booking, nothing indicated that shoplifting formed any part of their programme. The booking was escalated through appropriate channels, eventually to the Clerk of LWAM trustees, following the careful process established after last year’s events.
We are aware that Take Back Power’s current website contains a sentence about ‘taking back essential items and groceries from stores owned by corporations and billionaires.’ As far as we are aware, the session on 5 March involved training in the general principles of nonviolent direct action, and not the planning of any specific action.
Do Quakers support shoplifting?
No, we don’t think people should walk into a shop and take whatever they want. But Quakers do support peaceful nonviolent direct action, including symbolic acts that draw attention to an injustice, which is increasingly under threat as successive governments have restricted our right to protest. In taking protest action against injustice, people must carefully think through their motives, the consequences of their action on those affected, and they must be willing to be held accountable.
What are we doing now?
Quakers in Britain have published a full statement and press release. Much is ongoing behind the scenes, including a Serious Incident Report to the Charity Commission and communication with the police. We thank all Friends who are supporting this work.
But the immediate events at Westminster are part of something larger. The UK is the only country in western Europe rated “obstructed” for civic freedoms by Civicus. A UN Special Rapporteur has criticised the UK’s approach to protest rights. New clauses in the Crime and Policing Bill would introduce sweeping restrictions on the right to demonstrate. This raid, the second on a Quaker meeting house in a year, is not an isolated incident. It is part of a pattern. Quakers have been navigating state repression for over 350 years. Quakers in Britain will continue their work to resist the ever shrinking of civic space in this country.
On Tuesday 17 March, there will be a mass lobby of Parliament to defend the right to protest, jointly organised by Amnesty International UK, Greenpeace, Liberty, Quakers in Britain, the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, and many trade unions. The lobby is specifically focused on opposing the “cumulative disruption” clause in the Crime and Policing Bill — the same clause that threatens to sweep up peaceful campaigns on Palestine, climate, and peace. If you are able to come to Parliament between 2pm and 5pm on 17 March, please consider joining. Register here.
Our considered position on hirings
Last year’s raid prompted careful discernment by Westminster Quaker Meeting and London Quakers Property Trust (LQPT). That discernment led to updated hiring guidelines. You can see the minutes below in full.
Westminster LM minute 2025.05.06
Feeding into discernment on criteria for hirings
We have considered whether or not we are comfortable to continue to hire space to Youth Demand.
Our Westminster hiring criteria were circulated with the agenda and include that hiring may be refused if ‘the aims or policies of the organisation or individual wishing to hire are in serious conflict with Quaker values; violence or the encouragement of violence may reasonably be anticipated; invited speakers may reasonably be expected to attract significant controversy’.
We do not all draw the same line around what forms of direct action we believe compatible with Quaker values. Some of us are led to take part in the sort of actions that Youth Demand carry out; others do not take part themselves but understand that others are acting under concern in doing so; and others of us consider that a religious group should not be associated with anything illegal. Some of us believe that large-scale disruption on the scale of ‘shutting down London’ is unacceptable and are therefore uncomfortable that the Meeting House should be hired to groups that may use such tactics.
We are reminded that the broadness of the 2023 Public Order Act — defining anything that is not ‘minor’ disruption as being ‘serious’ — had the intention of closing down protest. Some Friends feel we must distinguish between what is legal and what is right, and that many Friends act on religious conviction today in ways that lead to arrests and criminal conviction. We remind ourselves that slavery and apartheid were once legal, and of the action taken by Friends and others in response to this. We have heard Advices and Queries 35 read, which tells us to “respect the laws of the state but let your first loyalty be to God’s purposes” and been reminded of Edward Burrough’s words of 1661, which speak to the same issue.
We may be led as individuals or meetings to stand against the law when that is a carefully discerned position. Who we hire to is not the same issue and we cannot guess the nature of another group’s leadings and consideration. We must keep the Meeting House as a safe space for ourselves and all our hirers, which may mean that not all groups are suitable hirers.
We look forward to Yearly Meeting 2025 where we will be able to explore further what the peace testimony means for Quakers today.
LQPT trustees hold legal responsibility for hirings policies across London and will review them at their next meeting in light of events and the legal advice that BYM is securing.
We send this minute to AM hoping that if AM unites with it, the minute may be forwarded to LQPT trustees and feed into their discernment.
LQPT minute 25/04/05
Decisions on future hirings [some names redacted]
We have received a paper from [LQPT trustee #1] and [LQPT trustee #2] setting out the background on hirings, and a paper from [LQPT Senior Manager] reminding us of 2023 discernment on hirings, and setting out current LQPT and Westminster Hiring Policy, together with Charity Commission guidance.
We note that we will need to review the current hiring policies and the process by which Local Meetings approve hirers to ensure this remains fit for purpose and enables LQPT to manage risks effectively. There may be other issues we will need to consider long term. However, we will not take any long-term decisions today until we have legal advice (expected towards the end of April) and time for careful discernment.
There are immediate considerations which we have addressed in this meeting: Youth Demand have another event scheduled at Westminster Meeting House on 3rd April. The Clerk has received a properly completed and compliant booking form for the Youth Demand event so that we can do the due diligence and follow LQPT’s agreed processes. We feel that the Youth Demand meeting for 3rd April should go ahead as long as they can ensure that our health and safety processes are followed.
Youth Demand have also requested overnight accommodation at several meeting houses in London and [LQPT Senior Manager] has circualted the current guidance to Premises Committees and Trustees, reminding them that, irrespective of the nature of the hirer, our insurance requires that any overnight stays are agreed with LQPT’s insurers in advance, that a Quaker from the local meeting stays in the meeting house during any stays, and that the maximum number of a group staying is nine.
LQPT minute 25/04/06
Concluding minute
We are keenly aware of the need to balance our responsibilities as Trustees with the strong desire of Quakers to allow hiring of space to groups which may find it difficult to meet elsewhere, where the aims and objectives of such groups accord with Quaker values and witness. This will be a factor in future discernment. Our paramount responsibility as Trustees is the safety and wellbeing of staff and volunteers in meeting houses, and all those who use our meeting houses.
LQPT minute 25/07/15
Principles around hiring to nonviolent direct action protest groups
Further to minute 25/04/05, we note LWAM’s minute 25.24 enclosing a minute from Westminster LM to feed into our discernment, a digest of legal advice commissioned by BYM, and a covering paper. We ask our Governance Committee to start work on some guidelines that would apply to all LQPT buildings. We forward this minute to all AMs.
LQPT minute 25/09/08
Update on hiring guidelines for the LQPT Meeting House Management Guide
Further to minute 25/07/14, we receive:
- a paper from our clerks on hiring principles drawing on BYM’s digest of legal advice on ‘providing support to a group through hiring rooms with a fee paid’ and on Westminster LM’s discernment on hirings endorsed and forwarded by LWAM
- suggested revisions to the LQPT Meeting House Management Guide from Governance Committee.
We agree to the revisions to the meeting house management guide as amended in the meeting.
We note that allowing groups that engage in nonviolent direct action to book meeting rooms on the same basis as all other groups using a meeting house is a lower risk activity, but does carry some risk — in particular as it is now clear that the police may decide to take action to interrupt meetings of groups involved in nonviolent direct action.
In practical terms, Friends can enable a group to gather that might otherwise find it difficult to hire space. Westminster’s discernment reminds us that Friends ‘do not all draw the same line around what forms of direct action we believe compatible with Quaker values’, so it is important that Friends locally are comfortable with any such hiring, as well as ensuring that it does not threaten violence. An LM needs also to consider potential disruption to a meeting: as Westminster LM also minuted, ‘We must keep the Meeting House as a safe space for ourselves and all our hirers, which may mean that not all groups are suitable hirers.’
In hiring to groups involved in nonviolent direct action, LMs can reduce risk by hiring for social activities or training rather than for planning actions.
Where an LM is unsure about a potential hiring, we encourage it to discuss the matter with the wider AM and with LQPT.
We send this minute to AMs with a link to the revised meeting house management guide.