Tens of thousands gather to remember Jason Arday at London vigil

Tens of thousands of people gathered in London’s Trafalgar Square on Monday evening to remember Jason Arday, the former Cambridge professor who died last week.

The vigil, organised by Stand Up to Racism, saw mourners fill the square for speeches, a minute’s silence and tributes to the 41-year-old academic. Many wore black and brought flowers, which were left beneath Nelson’s Column, while others held placards that read ​“rest in power”.

Opening the event, Labour MP Bell Ribeiro-Addy, Jason’s constituency MP, read a statement from his family, who she said were ​“still coming to terms” with his death. ​“The public cruelty Jason was subjected to was too much for any man to bear,” she read. 

Arday, who became Cambridge University’s youngest Black professor in 2023, died on Friday after emergency services were called to his home in south London. His death came shortly after he resigned from his role amid scrutiny over allegations about his career and academic work, which he rejected.

Other speakers of the evening included Dianne Abbott, Dawn Butler, Misan Harriman and Lord Simon Woolley – many focusing on the media coverage Arday faced in the weeks before his death. 

Diane Abbott described it as a ​“vicious and bitter media campaign”, saying: ​“He must have felt that if he resigned, the attacks on him would stop. But in fact, they got even worse.”

• Read next: Misan Harriman: ​“The humanity I bear witness to is extraordinary”

Lord Simon Woolley, a mentor to Arday at Cambridge, said he had seen him shortly before his death and knew that ​“Jason was suffering”. Arday had told him he felt he was being ​“hounded”, Woolley said, adding that he and others had ​“told him he was loved”. 

“Jason wouldn’t dare leave the house,” he said. ​“We held him in our arms […], we showed him he was not alone”. 

Woolley remembered Arday as a ​“wonderful man” and called for ​“some reckoning” following his death.

Windrush campaigner Patrick Vernon also urged those gathered to remember Arday beyond the controversy surrounding his final weeks, saying: ​“Let’s remember his life, his scholarship, his achievements, his determination and his humanity and the people that he inspired.”

Ella Glossop is Huck’s social editor. Follow her on Bluesky.

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