HOME Secretary Theresa May was heckled by a single protester before she addressed delegates at the Police Federation conference in Bournemouth yesterday.

As she arrived at the BIC before her speech, which received a favourable response compared with last year’s jeers, Mrs May was loudly heckled by the lone grey-haired woman.

Holiday-makers Richard Davis and Beverley Dawkins from London were passing the conference centre when the lady started calling out to the Home Secretary.

Mr Davis, 43, said: “As Theresa May drove up in her 4x4 this lady leapt forward and the police then moved in and restrained her. We were just passing and she started reading from her piece of paper.”

The protester called for Mrs May to pass on a message to Prime Minister David Cameron to “get us out of Europe” before telling the police officers, who were trying to keep her back, they shouldn’t be restraining her.

“She was totally alone and very determined to make her point. She just carried on when the police came across to her,” Mr Davis added.

“Mrs May didn’t bat an eyelid but she must have heard her – she had a good pair of lungs on her.”

Despite the one-woman protest, the Home Secretary’s speech called for an end to “frivolous” legal claims made by officers against the public.

She also announced further prosecution powers for the police so they can bring charges against minor shoplifters and pledged to change the law so criminals who kill police officers face minimum whole-life jail terms.

Mrs May said the Government is to propose that the starting point for anyone convicted of the murder of a police officer in the line of duty should be increased to whole life without parole from a current minimum of 30 years.