Who are Led by Donkeys? 11 times activists trolled UK and US politicians and mocked companies - in pictures
The activist group was formed in 2018 and have protested against things including Brexit and the Russian war on Ukraine
For the last five years, a political campaign group has been scrutinising Conservative politicians by performing a variety of public stunts, including posting huge billboards across the UK and projecting images and videos onto famous landmarks.
Led by Donkeys was created by four friends, who were all connected with environmental campaign group Greenpeace and were frustrated by Brexit in 2018, having voted to remain during the 2016 referendum. Oliver Knowles and Ben Stewart were employees of Greenpeace, and James Sadri and Will Rose had previously been involved with the group.
When the group was started it was in response to the dissatisfaction Knowles, Stewart, Sadri and Rose felt about leaving the European Union, but in the years since they have also used their platform to question the actions of various MPs, companies and other official figures from across the world.
The four men performed their first form of protest in 2018 when they found an old tweet by former prime minister David Cameron. This tweet, which was sent before the 2015 election, read: "Britain faces a simple and inescapable choice - stability and strong Government with me, or chaos with Ed Miliband". The four men said they thought it summed up what they believed to be the "failure of Britain’s political leadership” when they later gave an interview to The Observer in 2019 to reveal their identities. They decided to print out the tweet and paste it on a billboard, and following on from this each of them then chose a statement from a pro-Brexit politician to put up on billboards as well.
Take a look through our gallery below to see 11 other times that Led by Donkeys have mocked prominent figures and firms since then.
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1. The Ukrainian flag
The group painted the Ukrainian flag outside the Russian Embassy on 23 February 2023 in London. They created the 500 square metre flag using washable paint poured onto the road to show solidarity with Ukraine on the eve of the one year mark since the Russian invasion of Ukraine began. Four people have since been arrested.
2. Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice
The group, along with Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice, projected videos and messages onto the Houses of Parliament in Westminster, London, in November 2020 asking the then Prime Minister Boris Johnson to meet with them.
3. Donald Trump
A video was created by the group in September 2020 showing the number of times then US President Donald Trump had played golf during the coronavirus pandemic and the total Covid-19 deaths in the United States. They projected this on to his Trump Turnberry resort.
4. Syrian refugee
In August 2020, the group lit up the White Cliffs of Dover with a giant video of Mr Akkad, a Syrian refugee who crossed to Britain several years ago. In the video, he spoke about the“terrifying and devastating” journeys he said many people are making to reach the UK by boat, and blamed the Government for using the crisis as a distraction from the coronavirus pandemic.