A man who threw a stink bomb at the Queen when Britain joined the EU says he’ll do it again to MPs delaying who keep delaying Brexit.

Eurosceptic Bill Phillips, 80, was fined £10 in 1973 for the joke bomb he threw at a party celebrating the then European Economic Community.

He said he was aiming for the Prime Minister at the time – Ted Heath – but he missed and accidentally hit the Monarch.

Brexiteer Bill Phillips is willing to take desperate measures to get Brexit moving (Picture: SWNS)

Bill, who was an electrician at the time, said he was ‘soulfully sorry’ when the bomb hit the Queen, who was walking several paces ahead of him.


He had two other stink bombs on him at the time but he put them away and had promised his wife Hazel, 79, he would never to touch them again after what had happened.

Colston Hall renamed Bristol Beacon to shake off association with slave trader

But Bill, of Portsmouth, furious about the potential of another Brexit delay as Theresa May heads to Brussels, has started to reconsider.



He said: ‘I always said that my stink-bombing days were over, but I might come out of retirement if the politicians keep dragging their heels.

‘They should get on with it – we’re a democracy, and we democratically voted to leave the EU.

‘It doesn’t matter how vocal the minority is, the people have spoken, and we want Brexit.’

Bill still has two stinkbombs left from the packet he bought in 1973 (Picture: SWNS)

Bill added: ‘In 1973 I was fed up, and now, 46 years later, I’m still fed up.

‘I just want us to be out, even if it needs another stink-bombing.’

Described by his daughters as ‘the original Brexiteer’ Bill found himself in trouble in 1973 for protesting the ‘fanfair for Europe celebration’, a taxpayer-funded £300,000 celebratory dinner for dignitaries.

He said: ‘I went up to Covent Garden with a mate because we were just so angry.

‘There they were, spending £300,000 on a lavish dinner and I only had 20p in my pocket.

‘Some of us were working two or three day weeks because there weren’t enough wages to go around.

‘Everything seemed so expensive – just like now.’

Bill said he never meant to hit the Queen – but he might have another go at MPs (Picture: SWNS)

He said he and a friend went along and he took an ‘old box of stink bombs I had lying around’.

‘It was one of the ones you’d get from a joke shop – it couldn’t have cost more than a few bob,’ he said.

A self-confessed Royalist, Bill said he didn’t even know the Queen was there among the crowd of thousands.

‘Someone shouted that Ted Heath was there and I just hurled it,’ he said.

‘A copper asked me who threw the stink bomb and I said I did. It seemed the easiest thing to do.

‘They had me up before magistrates the next day, ordered me to pay a £10 fine, and I went home, simple as that.

‘I was in a lot more trouble when I got home.’

Got a story for Metro.co.uk? Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk. For more stories like this, check our news page.