- Oliver Eagleton, 26, pursued Michael Gove through Victoria Station on Saturday
The son of a top literary critic has been unmasked as the pro-Palestine marcher who allegedly lead the crowd that mobbed Michael Gove on Armistice Saturday.
Oliver Eagleton, 26, pursued the Levelling Up Secretary through Victoria Station in London with fellow activists, some of whom jostled with police.
Officers formed a a protective shield around Mr Gove, 56, as demonstrators swarmed around him, surging forward while chanting ‘shame on you’ as police ordered them to ‘get back’.
The Cabinet minister escaped by being bundled into a police van and has since hailed ‘exemplary’ Met Police officers who rescued him and thanked them for ‘getting me home safely’.
In wake of the incident, Mr Gove has cancelled the advice surgery he was meant to hold in his constituency Surrey this weekend over ‘security concerns’, it emerged today.
Mr Eagleton, a Jeremy Corbyn follower and New Statesman columnist, allegedly led the Gaza-backing activists in their intimidation of Mr Gove at the rail hub last Saturday.
When confronted by the Mail, he criticised those he said falsely claimed to back free speech and condemned ‘politicians enabling [Israel‘s] genocidal war’ – an apparent reference to Mr Gove.
He has also referred to the October 7 atrocities in Israel as the ‘Al-Aqsa Flood’ – the name given to the attacks by Hamas.
He argued, in an article for the New Left Review, that the terrorists’ massacre ‘aimed to unravel a political conjuncture in which the apartheid regime had become convinced that it could repress any serious resistance to its rule’.
Mr Eagleton also wrote a Sir Keir Starmer biography last year claiming he had sabotaged his predecessor Mr Corbyn’s leadership.
The 26-year-old’s father Terry Eagleton, 80, is a Marxist academic and was a lecturer at the same Oxford college, Wadham, his son later attended.
The academic, now an emeritus professor at Lancaster University, in 2007 published a book portraying Jesus as a Palestinian insurgent, The Times reported.
Earlier this month he penned an article published on UnHerd arguing: ‘The target of terrorism is usually the state, but many states were themselves born in the blood and fire of invasion, dispossession, forcible occupation or extermination.’
Details about Mr Eagleton’s identity come as Mr Gove was allegedly ‘forced’ to cancel an open-invite meeting for his Surrey Heath constituents this weekend.
A source told The Times that the Levelling Up Secretary was ‘advised’ against holding the event due to the clash last weekend.
‘He doesn’t take these decisions lightly and will look to arrange another surgery asap following an assessment of his security,’ the insider added. ‘Serving his Surrey Heath constituents remains his absolute priority.’
Yesterday British Transport Police arrested three men for an alleged racially aggravated altercation with pro-Palestine activists at Waterloo Station.
They include amateur football club secretary Kevin Sweeney, 61, of West Molesey, Surrey, as well as a 57-year-old from Surbiton in south London and a 33-year-old from Christchurch in Dorset.
