‘Samurai sword-wielding man turns up at Parliament to speak with Boris Johnson’

Lewis Allington, who allegedly wore armour and travelled from Cambridge, was arrested at scene and will appear in court next month

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A man who allegedly turned up outside the Houses of Parliament wearing armour and carrying samurai swords wanted to “speak with Boris Johnson”, a court has heard.
Lewis Allington, 34, was arrested after the incident outside Parliament on Tuesday afternoon, which led to the Carriage Gates entrance being temporarily closed.
Mr Allington, from March, Cambridgeshire, appeared at Westminster magistrates’ court on Thursday charged with two counts of possession of bladed articles.
Malachy Pakenham, prosecuting, told the court the defendant had travelled to London from Cambridgeshire, put on body armour and attended Parliament “with two samurai swords, asking to see Boris Johnson”.
Allington’s defence lawyer, Norman Cho, told the district judge, Briony Clarke, that Allington had “no intention of harming someone with weapons”.
District Judge Clarke sent the case to Southwark crown court for a plea and trial preparation hearing on Dec 12.
She told Allington, who was dressed in a red sweatshirt and green trousers, that he would be granted bail on condition that he remains at a Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Trust facility following a recent mental health assessment in Hammersmith, west London.
Allington is not to enter London and the area within the M25, she added.