Jean stands her ground in demo

HOW IT WAS . . . Jean Jones and John Battye, MP Phil Woolas’s researcher, discuss the demonstration

A tiny woman councillor stood her ground when an angry group of pro-immigration protesters launched a surprise demonstration on a Government Minister’s office.

Jean Jones (61), who stands 4ft 10in tall, fronted up to the group of about 18 protesters who were demanding to see Phil Woolas, Minister of Immigration and MP for Oldham East and Saddleworth.

Mr Woolas was hosting a regular advice surgery in offices he shares with another MP, Michael Meacher, in Oldham town centre on Friday evening.

His secretary Jean Jones, herself a councillor, was in a ground floor reception area, when protesters pushed in demanding to see the MP who was in an upstairs office meeting a constituent.

But Mrs Jones, a mother of two, who weighs just eight stone, remonstrated with them before running up the stairs ahead of them to call the police and warn the surprised MP of the invasion.

As the constituent left Mr Woolas’s office, the demonstrators pushed in and for 20 minutes he was surrounded as they shouted abuse and demanded answers on immigration issues.

He said: “I had no idea there were protesters in the building until Jean came to tell me what had happened and said she had called the police.

“As the constituent left, a whole bunch of protesters pushed in, filling my office.

“They were aged between 18 and 50 and about a third of them were women. One had a video camera recording the scene and at least two others had cameras.

“Initially, I was very scared,” he said. “They were very arrogant and abusive, but they did not say who they represented.

“They just kept up a barrage of questions and then began putting stickers on the office walls, which read “No borders, no states, no wars”.

“After the initial upset I didn’t feel threatened. But I was shaken by the experience.”

He added: “Jean is a strong, compassionate woman. She has a burning sense of right and wrong.”

Police arrived and advised Mr Woolas to leave immediately. “I thanked the police for their response and left by the front door,” he said.

Talking today, Mrs Jones, a ward councillor for Medlock Vale, who has been the MP’s secretary for 10 years, said: “I was a little shaken but the protesters didn’t intimidate me with their views. I was more surprised that anything else.

“I just stood my ground. They pushed past but I went ahead, rang the police and told Mr Woolas what was happening.”

John Battye, the Minister’s researcher, said they had received a warning and briefing from police about a possible protest later this month. “But this on Friday came as a surprise,” he said.

Mr Battye had been with Mr Woolas at a series of meetings earlier in the day but had left before the protesters arrived.

He added: “Phil always has busy surgeries. He just gets on with things and he was in Uppermill meeting constituents the following day as normal.”

A spokesman for GMP said: “The demonstrators left the premises shortly after they were requested to leave.”

Manchester No Borders, a group resisting migration controls, said two dozen Oldham and Manchester residents “detained” Mr Woolas for about 30 minutes to mirror his policies of detaining migrants without prosecution, trial or sentence.