Casting agency offered £20 per person to stand outside Downing Street
Published: 24 Jul 2018 - 01:16 pm | Last Updated: 28 Dec 2021 - 11:39 am
A view of 10 Downing Street (file photo / Reuters)
A British agency had put out an advertisement calling for paid extras to stand outside “the gates of Downing Street when the Qatar Amir visits on Tuesday.” This was reported by leading British daily The Guardian yesterday.
The Guardian, reported that casting agency Extra People said in their advertisement that they are ready to pay £20 per person who willing to fill space outside Downing Street when Qatar Amir visits. The advert also said they don’t have to do anything just fill the space.
"This is NOT a film or TV production," casting agency Extra People said in an email to their actors.
"The company are looking for a large group of people to fill space outside Downing Street during the visit of the president of Quatar (sic). This is an ANTI-Qatar event - You will not have to do or say anything, they just want to fill space. You will be finished at 12:30."
The report said that the agency retracted the advert and said they don’t want to get involved in the paid protest. They said that the organisers wanted the paid extras to protest when the Amir arrived to meet British Prime Minister Theresa May.
The British company later explained that it was contacted by a PR agency company called 'Neptune PR Ltd' asking for 500 people to stand outside Downing Street.
It said a junior booker subsequently made the arrangement without consulting management and it had now "withdrawn" its involvement.
"As soon as we as a company became aware that it was a political demonstration, we immediately withdrew wanting no further part in this," Tom Walker, the company director of Extra People, told Al Jazeera.
"We have never or will never supply artistes for any event that could be deemed racist or xenophobic and regret that we have even been caught up in this."
“We quickly made the decision to withdraw our involvement and wish to have no association with the event,” The Independent quoted a person from the agency as saying.
The Guardian quoted a Qatari diplomat as saying that “the blockading countries have a long history of using paid protesters to try and discredit those who do not agree with their views. Despite their latest attempts to spread lies about Qatar, the visit of HH the Emir has further strengthened the historic and strategic partnership between Qatar and the UK.”
There have been accusations earlier also about the blockading countries hiring people to attend seminars and protests against Qatar. An event held in Munich at the beginning of this year to tarnish the reputation of Qatar hired models to attend and speak at the event. The whole event turned into an enormous embarrassment to the organisers.
