Anti-arms campaigners picketed a Bahraini business PR event yesterday to demand the British royal family stop supporting the country’s oppressive regime.

Protesters wearing black gas masks lay on the floor next to mock CS gas canisters outside the Queen Elizabeth Conference Centre in Westminster, where the This is Bahrain conference is trying to promote the repressive Gulf state and its business interests.

The Duke of York had been due to attend but didn’t because of a reported clash in his schedule.