A volunteer police officer told a Christian singer that she was ‘not allowed to sing church songs outside of church grounds’ – before sticking her tongue out at her.
Gospel singer Harmonie London, 20, regularly performs worship music to passing shoppers on Oxford Street and has more than 300,000 subscribers on YouTube.
But she was stopped by a Metropolitan Police special constable and told: ‘No miss, you’re not allowed to sing church songs outside of church grounds, by the way.’
As onlookers watched and filmed the confrontation outside the John Lewis store, Harmonie protested her innocence to the officer, saying: ‘You are, you are, you are.’
But the officer continued to insist that she could not sing ‘outside of church grounds unless you have been authorised by the church to do these kind of songs’.
Gospel singer Harmonie London was stopped by an officer on Oxford Street in the West End
The officer told her that ‘you’re not allowed to sing church songs outside of church grounds’
Harmonie said ‘that’s a load of rubbish, you’re allowed’ – but the officer then walked away and another said: ‘She’s not saying anything anymore, thank you for your time.’
The singer said: ‘Are you saying that you don’t care about the Human Rights Act?’
She then accused her of ‘laughing’ while the officer was walking away – and the officer then stuck her tongue out.
Among those hitting out at the video was former Conservative minister Ann Widdecombe, who called for the officer to be ‘struck off from the voluntary force’.
She told GB News: ‘She really has got the law completely wrong and she was obviously enjoying herself rather too much, trying to boss this woman around.
‘And there is no basis at all for saying you can’t sing. I could walk down the street singing Onward Christian Soldiers and I would be committing no offence at all.’
Norman Brennan, a former police officer and anti-crime campaigner, also tweeted: ‘Folks, this is not a good look. Some of us are trying hard to help policing get back public lost support respect and confidence and this does not help.’
Harmonie London has become a popular Christian street singer in recent years and now has nearly 300,000 followers on each of Instagram and YouTube.
Some of her videos have attracted more than four million views. Her latest clip posted yesterday was entitled: ‘Unpaid Volunteer Officer Doesn’t Like Gospel Songs.’
The officer then walked away along Oxford Street as the singer continued to film her
At the end of the video the officer stuck her tongue out at the singer as she continued filming
The caption for the clip, posted at about 6pm, said: ‘Special constables are volunteer police officers who invest their free time to make a real difference to our city. You will get a tremendous amount of pride from giving back to the community.’
Scotland Yard confirmed to that the video was filmed on Oxford Street at the weekend, with officers now ‘working to understand the context in which these comments were made’. The force said an update will be issued ‘as soon as we can’.
Harmonie’s clip has so far attracted more than 5,000 likes and 1,500 comments. has contacted the singer for comment.
Westminster City Council includes Oxford Street among its busking and street entertainment regulated areas of the West End.
Harmonie London has become a popular Christian street singer in recent years (file image)
Policy states that there is a ‘light touch licensing scheme’ applicable in the area, which means anyone will ‘only be able to busk in designated pitches’.
They also need to apply for a licence to perform, keep to terms and conditions of the designated pitches, and abide by the conditions of their licence.
Busking is not illegal in England and Wales but there may be certain byelaws or rules imposed by individual councils, such as not making too much noise.
Singers also may to told to avoid blocking pavements, not displaying notices asking for payment and only busking in certain parts of a town or for a fixed period of time.