Police have arrested a second man on suspicion of harassing the BBC journalist Nick Watt after footage emerged online last week of the political editor being confronted and chased by a group of protesters.
The Metropolitan police said a 62-year-old man was being held in custody in a south London police station on suspicion of an offence under section 4a of the Public Order Act, which covers using threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour towards another person with the intention to cause them harassment, alarm or distress.
The images shared online showed protesters shouting at Watt, who was wearing his BBC lanyard, as he walked down the street. The former Guardian chief political correspondent then doubled back and ran through a group of people, some of whom were shouting “traitor” and other slurs at him, before he made it beyond a line of police officers near Downing Street.
Crowds had gathered to protest against the government’s four-week extension of coronavirus restrictions in England.
Martin Hockridge, 57, was arrested and charged in relation to the incident last week. He is due to appear at Westminster magistrates court on Tuesday 29 June.
