Stop Brexit Man claims he was doing Sir Keir Starmer favour by drowning out resignation speech with Ode to Joy

Brexit-hating Steve Bray has claimed he was doing Sir Keir Starmer a favour by drowning out his resignation speech.

Journalists and politicians reacted in horror after the Prime Minister’s moment was tarnished by Beethoven’s ‘Ode to Joy’ blasting from a set of speakers outside Downing Street.

Now the culprit Steve Bray – widely known as ‘Stop Brexit Man,’ and often spotted around Westminster with a loudspeaker – has revealed his reasoning.

He posted on X: ‘In case anyone has the wrong idea – Ode to Joy was played out of respect at background volume.

‘If you were at Downing Street there was a man with megaphone slagging off labor and Keir constant.

‘It could be heard so there you go. Not disrespectful in my opinion, but you are entitled to your opinion. It was Ode to Joy or the guy with megaphone shouting all the way through.’

There you have it. Ode to Joy is a pro-European anthem, which Bray claims Sir Keir Starmer listed as one of his favourite pieces of music.

But both the left and the right were united in their hatred of Bray.

One labor MP told The Spectator: ‘Steve Bray should be sent to Guantanamo or a mental asylum.;

Lord David Wolfson, Shadow Attorney General, posted on X: ‘The PM’s resignation is a historic event. So why is Steve Bray continually allowed to turn Parliament Square into his own one-man soundtrack?

‘A vibrant public square is one thing. Blaring music over a major constitutional moment is attention-seeking dressed up as activism.’

Lewis Goodall, once of Newsnight, called him a yob, posting on X: ‘Steve Bray blasting Ode to Joy, ruining nationally historic moments like this for us and posterity, is a complete disgrace. A yob.’

Andrew Neil called him out as a ‘buffoon’ telling Times Radio: ‘The fact that we allow this to happen shows, that at times, we are not a serious country.’

But Political analyst Owen Jones said: ‘Steve Bray is a massive d***head. He also has a legal right to be a massive d***head. This country is increasingly authoritarian as it is. Anyone calling for even more crackdowns is a much bigger threat than the aforementioned massive d***head.’

Camilla Tomney posted on X: ‘I did speak to Bray about it afterwards and he insisted it was a tribute because Starmer once listed it as his favourite piece of music. I don’t remember lefties objecting when he drowned out Brexiteers and righties, mind.’

It’s not the first time the Welsh activist has ruined a Prime Minister’s big moment.

The sound of Tony Blair’s 1997 election soundtrack Things Can Only Get Better by the Northern Irish band D:Ream drowning a sopping wet Rishi Sunak announcing an election that he would go on to lose.

Bray said he decided to blast the track out of an amplifier because it was a ‘top trolling song for the Conservatives’.

The lyrics of the song, first released in 1993, read: ‘So teach me now that things can only get better / Only get, they only get, take it on from here / You know, I know that things can only get better.’

The sound of the dance-pop song that marked Blair’s success only came to an end when Bray’s amplifiers got soaked.