Membership of anti-monarchy group Republic almost doubles in wake of coronation arrests

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The anti-monarchy group Republic’s membership has almost doubled in a week following the high-profile arrest of its chief executive, Graham Smith, during last weekend’s coronation.

The news comes as a poll reveals that almost nine in 10 Britons did not pledge allegiance to King Charles during the ceremony, despite being encouraged to do so by the archbishop of Canterbury.

Scotland Yard has expressed “regret” over the arrest of a group of protesters from Republic on the morning of the coronation on 6 May.

Smith said the group had benefited from more than ?80,000 in donations and sales income over the last week and attracted thousands of new paying members.

The increased public recognition of the group comes as an Opinium poll for the Observer reveals 57% of Britons questioned said they did not pledge allegiance to the king at the coronation because they did not want to. Another 31% said they did not pledge but would not have minded doing so.

Only 12% of those polled pledged allegiance to the king, in what was initially intended as a “homage of the people”. That element of the ceremony was toned down, with an invitation rather than a call made by the archbishop to pledge allegiance.

The poll found that 64% of those surveyed watched the coronation, with most only watching part of the two-hour service.

The change in the “homage of the people” was made after widespread criticism. The broadcaster Jonathan Dimbleby said the king would find the idea of people paying homage to him “abhorrent”. Republic described the idea as “offensive”.

Police arrested 64 people on the day of the coronation, but were accused by a director of Human Rights Watch of “incredibly alarming” tactics over the detention of peaceful protesters.

It emerged last week that Alice Chambers, an Australian architect based in London unconnected to any protesters, was among those arrested as she waited to see the king. She said she was detained for 13 hours.

Smith was among a group of protesters from Republic who were arrested and held at Walworth police station in south London. He was released without charge after about 16 hours.

The anti-monarchy protesters were arrested under the new Public Order Act, which gives police powers to shut down protests before disruption. The act was given royal assent on 2 May, days before the coronation took place.

While Smith said it had been traumatic to be arbitrarily detained, there had been a “silver lining” in that his group had gained new supporters. Republic’s membership has almost doubled over just a few days, rising from about 5,000 to about 9,000.

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An anti-monarchy coronation appeal saw its funds increase from ?47,000 on the day of the coronation to more than ?91,000. The group also separately received about ?20,000 in donations, including one single donation of ?10,000.

Smith said: “The response has been overwhelming. We’ve had tens of thousands of pounds coming and thousands of new supporters signing in. It’s put us front and centre.

“People understand it’s quite worrying if the law allows police to arrest the most peaceful of peaceful protests. I think it has done the police an awful lot of reputational damage. A lot of the coverage of the coronation was dominated by these arrests.”

Smith said the group’s online shop had also reported a boost in sales over the last week, with revenues of about ?20,000. That compares with typical weekly revenues ranging from a few hundred pounds to about ?3,000. Items on sale include ?14.99 T-shirts with the logo NotMyKing and ?9.99 mugs with the words No Monarchy.

Smith said he was not surprised by the new poll showing that only a small proportion had pledged allegiance to the king. He said this reflected the fact that there was a only a small group of enthusiastic royalists in the country and considered it demonstrated that “we are not a nation of monarchists”.

Smith said recent polling had suggested national support for the monarchy was slipping. A poll for ITV of more than 2,000 Britons, published this month, showed that overall 52% supported the monarchy, but just 39% of those aged from 18 to 34 said they backed it.