Naked ex-postman superglues himself to desk in Job Centre protest

A man stripped naked and superglued himself to a desk at Bridlington Job Centre in a protest over benefits. Ian Robinson, 43, took the action after becoming frustrated that he had not been awarded any Disability Living Allowance or motability benefit despite suffering what he described as “chronic pain” from arthritis. He walked into the centre at 9.30am on Tuesday, took off all his clothes and superglued his arms to a desk in protest against the Department of Work and Pensions. Police and an ambulance were called but Mr Robinson managed to prise himself off the desk before being arrested.

Mr Robinson said he “would do it all over again” to get his point across. He said: “I feel that the people who are paying for this country’s economic woes are the sick and those in pain. “A society is judged on how it treats the sick and leaving them without disability benefit is criminal.” Mr Robinson described the moment he staged his protest: “When I started taking my clothes off, a man said ‘You can’t do that in here’, so I went over and glued myself to his desk,” he said.



“Nobody tried to stop me, it was too late by that point.” Mr Robinson freed himself without the assistance of paramedics and escaped from the incident relatively unscathed, with just some redness to his forearms. He said: “I didn’t want to put the ambulance people to the trouble so I just pulled my arms up and off the desk.” He believes his former profession as a postman contributed to his arthritis which he says requires him to take high doses of powerful painkillers. He believes that he should be entitled to disability benefit because his condition prevents him from working and he is struggling to live on job-seekers allowance of £65 per week.

The Department for Work and Pensions refused to comment on the issue, saying only: “We can confirm that an incident took place at Bridlington Jobcentre and that the police attended.” The Jobcentre protest is not the first time that Mr Robinson has taken the drastic measure. He superglued his hands to a Tesco check-out counter two months ago after a dispute with the company over home insurance payments. Mr Robinson is due at Bridlington Magistrates’ Court in a fortnight charged with a public order offence and criminal damage.