Red Lion Square Inquiry

The Red Lion Square Inquiry was established in June 1974 following the death of Kevin Gately, a 21-year-old student, during violent clashes between anti-fascist demonstrators and police outside Conway Hall, where the National Front was holding a meeting on 15 June 1974. Lord Justice Scarman was appointed to investigate the circumstances of the death and the disorder. The inquiry reported in February 1975, concluding that the violence constituted a riot in law and that police had acted within their powers. Scarman found that those who initiated the disorder bore moral responsibility for its consequences. While the inquiry made no formal recommendations, Scarman noted in his report that the Race Relations Act required amendment. The inquiry's direct policy impact appears limited in the public record, as it produced no formal recommendations. Its principal significance lies in establishing Lord Justice Scarman's reputation as an authority on public order matters, leading to his appointment to chair the more influential Brixton inquiry in 1981. The Red Lion Square report's analysis of the competing rights of protest and counter-protest is referenced in parliamentary debates preceding the Public Order Act 1986, though the Act was primarily shaped by later events and inquiries. The inquiry represents an early example of judicial investigation into confrontations between far-right groups and counter-demonstrators, a pattern that would recur in subsequent decades.