Rock star's son and the kitchen table plot

The most serious breach of security at the Palace of Westminster in modern times was probably organised around the kitchen table of a £1.5 million mansion in Kensington.

Here, at the home of pop singer Bryan Ferry's ex-wife Lucy Helmore, would have gathered a handful of men determined to breach the inner sanctum of British Parliamentary democracy. Chief among them was Ferry's 21-year-old son Otis, a passionate supporter of hunting who has become a veteran of the countryside movement's radical direct action wing.

A year ago he was arrested by armed police who said he had been prowling outside the County Durham home of the Prime Minister, in the former pit village of Trimdon. Last week he was back there, at the head of an angry 100-strong pro-hunt demonstration staged while Tony Blair was having breakfast.

"If you passionately believe in something, you have to stand up to be counted - and my family fully supports that," he said.

He has previously suggested that the pro-hunt lobby had failed to show the Government how serious it is. "Its tactics have been too soft. We have to get the Government to notice us," he said.

At the time he said he was willing to go to jail for his beliefs. What Ferry and the others planned at his mother's home on Campden Hill may just achieve that wish.

It is understood Ferry left the house with his seven comrades dressed as builders in fluorescent jackets, hard hats and carrying clipboards. They were armed with a forged letter on headed Commons notepaper. Whatever they had in mind had been carefully organised.

Three years ago Ferry dropped out of ?15,000-a-year Marlborough College in Wiltshire to work for the Middleton Hunt in Birdsall, North Yorkshire. This March he joined the South Shropshire Hunt, becoming the youngest ever hunt Master. Janet George, a spokeswoman for the Countryside Action Network, which is co-ordinating resistance to the ban, said: "He's young, he's passionate, he's committed and very dedicated to hunting and feels the Government has screwed us, which it has."

Ferry's girlfriend, art student Jackie Coward, 18, who earlier in the day had been arrested with her mother for parking their cars in Parliament Square and refusing to move, said: "Otis has been absolutely distraught about the hunting ban over the last few weeks. Hunting and everything associated with it is all that he wants to do for the rest of his life." In March 2002, Otis's younger brother Isaac, 16, who rides with a hunt in West Sussex, was suspended from Eton for sending an abusive email to a hunt protester.

Ferry's prime co-conspirator appears to have been Luke Tomlinson, 27, a close friend of

princes William and Harry who has been photographed partying with them. Tomlinson was identified by Miss Coward as the man wriggling free of a Palace of Westminster official as he burst into the chamber.

The 27-year-old's wealthy parents, Simon and Claire, re-founded the Beaufort Polo Club in 1989, of which Prince Charles, a close friend, is patron. They live less than a mile from Highgrove and ride with the Beaufort Hunt alongside Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles.

Tomlinson, who lives with his parents on the family estate, went to Eton and the University of the West of England. He has become one of Britain's top polo players. Taught from the age of 10 by his mother, England's Polo World Cup coach, Tomlinson plays off a seven handicap and makes ?40,000 a year from the sport. He keeps 17 polo ponies in the UK and 10 in Argentina, where he spends six months of the year.

Harry, William and Tomlinson were frequently inside each other's homes as youngsters. He attended Prince William's 21st birthday party dressed as a mercenary, with a bullet belt slung over his shoulder. Royal insiders are said to have regarded him as a "safe pair of hands" and the Prince of Wales has privately described him as a good influence on his boys. Friends say Tomlinson is no upper class lout. He rarely drinks and lives the life of a monk during the polo season, up at 7am to check his ponies and careful with his diet. "I'm a country lad at heart," he says.

Also named by the Countryside Alliance as having taken part in the invasion of the Commons was David Redvers, 34, a stud owner at Hartpury in the Severn Vale, near Gloucester. He lives with his wife Laura and their son Charles, at a farm nearby.

Horse are in the blood. Both his mother and grandmother were show judges, while Redvers has been involved in the Ledbury Hunt for several years. He has helped his parents John and Diana build the stud into a successful business and with his wife has raced horses at Royal Ascot and Newmarket. Mr Redvers senior confirmed his son was arrested in the Commons. He said Redvers had told his wife Laura that "the police are being jolly nice and have been bringing us cups of tea."

Robert Thame is a professional polo player in his mid-thirties. A father of two young children he has been a member of the Bicester and Whaddon Chase hunt for many years. Friend Ian McKie said: "He does not mince his words and he feels very strongly about what has been going on. Hunting is his first love."

Father of two Andrew Elliot, 42, is an auctioneer from Ledbury who used to ride with the Ledbury hunt. He works for Brightwells, the largest equine auctioneers in Britain.

John Holliday is a professional hunt worker who stands to lose his job and his tied home when the ban comes into force. He is Master of the Ledbury hunt and a member of the Countryside Alliance. Divorced with two sons Holliday, 38, lives in a bungalow close to the hunt kennels.

Audrey Brewer, of the Ledbury Hunt pony club said: "He stands to lose his livelihood, which is why he and many others feel so strongly about what Mr Blair is doing." A Countryside Action Network source said: "He spends all his time looking after the hounds and doing all other jobs associated with hunting."

Also believed to be among the eight were Richard Wakeham, a point-to point-jockey from Yorkshire, and Nick Wood, 41, a chef.