A leading West End theatre has apologised to an EU supporter after it refused to allow her to watch the musical Waitress unless she removed a small “Forever EUropean” lapel badge featuring the EU stars in the shape of a heart.
Vicki Elcoate was stopped, along with her daughter, while trying to enter the Adelphi on the Strand on 23 March, hours after being among the hundreds of thousands of people who marched through London calling for Brexit to be put to a second vote.
It is the latest in a series of cases of Brexit protesters being singled out. Last week, a man was placed in a holding space by immigration officials at Gatwick after refusing to remove a “Bollocks to Brexit” sticker. He had just arrived on a flight from Europe.
In 2017, the BBC Proms became embroiled in a Brexit row after audience members claimed they had been prevented from waving EU flags.
Elcoate said: “Having been on the happy, peaceful march, I simply couldn’t believe it when this officious man refused to let us in.
“It was just a small badge, but he insisted the theatre had banned all political slogans. A huge queue built up behind me as we argued, and it all got rather embarrassing.”
Elcoate, who until recently worked for a MEP, had paid £90 for the tickets to celebrate her daughter’s birthday. She only removed the badge, she said, to ensure they could see the show.
“I was incensed. Instead of enjoying the show, I kept playing over the unpleasant scene in my mind as I felt singled out. I had asked whether they would have made me take off a pro-EU T-shirt, or to remove a Pride badge, but got nowhere. The whole episode was appalling,” she said.
The Adelphi, which is owned by the fiercely pro-remain Andrew Lloyd Webber, later offered Elcoate two replacement tickets to see the show again, and apologised.
A spokeswoman said: “The Brexit march was an exceptional day. We hosted many guests with political slogans from both sides of the debate, and we felt the safest and most sensible thing to do was to keep the venue politically neutral.
“Our team’s aim was to implement this admissions policy both fairly and consistently. We never want to cause offence and we’re sorry it did on this occasion.”
The theatre was conducting an internal review of the way the policy is communicated, she added.
