Sunak coconut sign racially abusive, court told

A woman who carried a placard depicting Rishi Sunak and Suella Braverman as coconuts has gone on trial accused of a racially aggravated offence.

Marieha Hussein, 37, from High Wycombe, took part in a pro-Palestinian rally in central London in November last year attended by hundreds of thousands of people, Westminster Magistrates' Court was told.

Prosecutor Jonathan Bryan said the term 'coconut' was "racially abusive". Defending, Rajiv Menon KC described Ms Hussein's placard as "political criticism" and said her marching with it through streets of London was reasonable conduct.

Ms Hussain, who is eight months pregnant, denies one count of committing a racially aggravated public order offence.

Her banner showed the faces of the then prime minister and home secretary superimposed on coconuts under a palm tree.

Mr Bryan said: "There were people present who were likely to have been caused harassment, alarm and distress by seeing what was on that placard."

He added: "Coconut is a well-known racial slur which has a very clear meaning.

"You may be brown on the outside, but you're white on the inside. In other words, you're a race traitor - you're less brown or black than you should be."

Mr Bryan said Ms Hussain had "crossed the line between legitimate political expression" and moved into "racial insult".

Defending, Mr Menon said his client's trial involved "very different territory than the familiar terms of racial abuse".

He told the court: "What she is saying is Suella Braverman was promoting in different ways a racist political agenda as evidenced by the Rwanda policy, the racist rhetoric she was using around small boats.

"And the prime minister was either quiescing to it or being inactive. It was a political criticism of these two particular politicians."

Metropolitan Police communications manager Chris Humphreys told the court that the images came to the attention of the police service as the force's social media account was "tagged in the post".

As the trial began, about 40 demonstrators waved Palestine flags and listened to speeches outside the court building.

The trial continues.