Anti-Brexit campaigner in 'B*llocks to Brexit' car stopped by police and force to remove slogan

The police forced the driver to remove the 'B' and 'O' from the slogan.

Peter Cook, who is standing in the upcoming election as an independent, was travelling in the bright yellow Mini Cooper along the M25 when officers flagged him down.

He claims a policeman threatened him with five penalty points on his license for erratic driving, before telling him that the anti-Brexit slogan daubed on the side of the car was against the law.

Mr Cook, who described the officer as "extremely aggressive", called 999 during the 40-minute ordeal, apparently due to "concerns for his safety", only to be told that phoning the emergency number was "another offence".

Police forced Mr Cook to remove the letters 'B' and 'O' from the vehicle - but not before the business consultant and anti-Brexit activist was reprimanded again for swearing in front of a mother and her child.

Speaking about the incident Mr Cook, who is standing in for Gillingham and Rainham, said: "The officer's behaviour bordered on deranged. He was very angry and refused to explain his actions, nor to listen to our justifications nor to consider our legal understandings.

"I feel he played judge and jury. The event lacked proportionality given that we were not armed, carrying drugs or proved any risk to the public. I got no answers when I questioned his authority under law to demand removal of the slogan, especially as the car does not belong to us.

"The signage cost £300 alone. I see the whole experience as a worrying development in our current political climate and question the police response to our freedom of speech and our democratic right to protest."

It is not the first time that Mr Cook's political views have courted controversy.

Earlier this year, he was punched at Gillingham railway station - after being taunted for wearing an anti-Brexit t-shirt.

However it has not stopped the businessman from protesting what he calls Britain's "sleepwalk into the tactics of fascism".

Discussing his bid to unseat Tory incumbent Rehman Chisti, he said: "I went to the same school as Rehman - he was a prefect and I wasn't. He's a career politician who doesn't do anything for the local area."

Mr Cook, a keen guitarist, has also penned an album addressing Britain's prospective split from the EU. Essex Police have been contacted for comment.