Belgian mayor orders end to NatCon conference attended by Suella Braverman and Nigel Farage

Emir Kir, the mayor of Brussels district Saint-Josse-ten-Noode, issued an order banning the National Conservatism conference from taking place on Tuesday, citing a need “to guarantee public safety”. He said: “In Etterbeek, in Brussels City and in Saint-Josse, the far-right is not welcome.”

The conference had already struggled to find a venue, with two event spaces cancelling the National Conservatives’ booking in the face of public pressure – leading organisers to accuse Brussels mayor Philippe Close of seeking to “cancel” the event.

According to a report on social media, police arrived while Mr Farage, the honorary president of Reform UK, was addressing the event, giving attendees 15 minutes to leave the venue. Footage later showed police officers entering the venue. However, officers did not appear to force the event to shut down and speeches continued.

Conference organisers said they were launching a legal challenge, adding: “There is no public disturbance and no grounds to shut down a gathering of politicians, intellectuals, journalists, students, civic leaders and concerned citizens.

“The police entered the venue on our invitation, saw the proceedings and the press corps, and quickly withdrew. Is it possible they witnessed how peaceful the event is?” They added that police were preventing people entering the venue and blocking delivery of food and water to the conference.

In a video on social media, Mr Farage said the Brussels authorities were behaving “like the old Soviet Union”.

He said: “At the meeting, over the next two days, you’ve got the prime minister of Hungary, you’ve got a bishop, you’ve got members of the European royal families coming, well-known international businessmen and women, politicians, leaders of parties that will win European elections in countries this year in June.

“And yet, because they are questioning ever-closer union, because they are questioning globalism, they are literally being shut down.”

With the closure gradual, attendees did hear from Suella Braverman, despite Rishi Sunak facing pressure to ban her attendance, with shadow minister Jonathan Ashworth urging the Prime Minister to stop the former home secretary “giving oxygen to these divisive and dangerous individuals”.

In her speech, Ms Braverman attacked the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) as incompatible with parliamentary democracy and the court charged with enforcing it as “profoundly undemocratic and politicised”.

The Conservative MP, a long-time opponent of the ECHR, said the UK could leave the convention “at the stroke of a pen”.

She said: “I wish the UK would do so now. Not only is it the right and necessary thing to do, it is also the politically expedient thing to do. Regrettably, the UK government doesn’t have the political will to take on the ECHR and hasn’t laid the groundwork for doing so.

“It’s therefore no surprise that recent noises in this direction from the Prime Minister are being dismissed by the public as inauthentic. It must also be said that any attempt by the government to include a plan for ECHR withdrawal, or a promise to hold a referendum on the question, in a losing Conservative Party election manifesto would likely set the cause back a generation.”