With his hood up and wearing dark glasses, he appears to be the terrifying face of hard-Left anarchy.
But the protester caught on camera as part of a mob wrecking a speech by Jacob Rees-Mogg is a middle-class university graduate whose grandmother has branded him ‘a naughty boy’.
Josh Connor, 24, was at the centre of the melee which erupted as the Tory MP gave a talk to the politics society at the University of the West of England (UWE) in Bristol on his life and beliefs on Friday night.
Josh Connor, 24, (above with girlfriend Andreea Dumitrache) was at the centre of the melee which erupted as Jacob Rees-Mogg gave a talk to the politics society at the University of the West of England (UWE)
The event was dramatically interrupted as Connor and others chanted ‘No platform for racists, no platform for homophobes’ and branded Mr Rees-Mogg ‘scum’.
Video footage shows Jeremy Corbyn supporter Connor – who graduated from UWE in Digital Communication and Media – swinging a punch during the fracas, apparently in retaliation after his 25-year-old girlfriend, Romanian-born student Andreea Dumitrache, was struck in the face by a man in a white shirt.
Connor’s family home – a £300,000 detached house – is in a leafy middle-class suburb in Nottingham, where he went to school.
The Tory MP talked to students about his life and beliefs on Friday night at the Bristol university
Last night his software engineer father Patrick said ‘I really don’t think I can help you – I’m very busy’ and closed the door.
But Josh’s 82-year-old grandmother Jillian Connor admonished him, saying of the incident: ‘I saw it and I thought surely not. You naughty boy.’
Speaking from her cottage in Kent, she added: ‘He is a very keen Socialist, slightly to the left of Trotsky, he is an ardent Labour supporter.
‘Who doesn’t get cross with Rees-Mogg occasionally? I can’t say I’m surprised, but I thought [Connor] was maturing.’
Connor was unavailable for comment yesterday.