Commons invasion 'was so simple'

One of the gang who stormed the House of Commons dressed as builders today described security there as "risible".

Speaking for the first time since staging the stunt, he told how the men walked past armed police unchallenged. "We didn't get stopped once," he said.

His claim came as a second breach of security emerged today when an undercover reporter was able to gain access to the Commons with a fake bomb.

Mr Redvers, a 34-year-old stud owner, released along with the seven other pro-hunting protesters early today, claimed they had plotted their astonishing escapade "on the back of an envelope" just hours beforehand.

Never expecting to succeed, he claimed they giggled and sang YMCA by the Seventies band Village People on a Tube to Westminster while dressed in their workman's disguises.

"We all gave ourselves a one in a thousand chance of getting there and we got there like odds-on certainties," he said. "It was risible.

"The first I heard of it was the morning before. I mean it was literally put together very very quickly by eight people who had never been in trouble with the law. We just wanted to make a point but it was put together literally on the back of an envelope 24 hours before," said Mr Redvers. He said they were amazed to have succeeded because they looked ridiculous in hard hats and yellow jackets.

He said: "We were actually in the Tube on the way to the House of Commons pretending we were doing YMCA by the Village People. That's how stupid we looked."

Mr Redvers flatly denied the gang had a "mole" inside the Commons advising them how to slip past security and enter the chamber by a little-known rear staircase.

"I'm happy to answer, categorically, absolutely none. It will no doubt all come out fairly soon," he said.

Asked on BBC Radio 4 how they could possibly have navigated the warren of corridors without help, Mr Redvers, of Hartpury, Gloucestershire, denied it was difficult, saying: "Not if you are wearing builder's kit and there is a load of building work going on." Challenged how they knew where to go, he refused to give details but said it would come out in due course, adding: "It was frighteningly simple."

Commons Leader Peter Hain dismissed his denial that the gang had help from an insider.

The minister said: "I do not accept there was not inside knowledge. The truth is they had a great deal of expert knowledge about the labyrinth that the House of Commons is to strangers. Somebody knew what they were doing."

All eight - Otis Ferry, Nick Wood, Luke Tomlinson, John Holliday, Andrew Elliot, Richard Wakeham, Robert Thame and Mr Redvers - were bailed and ordered to return to a central London police station next month.

They face charges of uttering a forged instrument; burglary with intent to commit criminal damage; and violent disorder after they used a fake House of Commons letter to enter the Palace of Westminster. The men have been promised a hero's welcome when they return to their respective shire homes - icons of rebellion against New Labour's "dictatorship" for a movement blooded in the battle that raged in Parliament Square on Wednesday.

"They'll be getting free drinks for life in the local pub," said Donald Haden, a former joint master of the Ledbury Hunt.

There is growing speculation that Princes William and Harry, both friends of Mr Tomlinson and Mr Thame, could have known about the men's plans to invade the chamber. A close friend of the princes said: "They are passionate about hunting and their father feels very strongly about the issue too. Privately they share the same views about the ban on hunting as their friends."