London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Monday, Sep 08, 2025

Covid lockdown: Why Magna Carta won’t exempt you from the rules

Covid lockdown: Why Magna Carta won’t exempt you from the rules

Business owners determined to escape coronavirus restrictions have resorted to citing obsolete and irrelevant laws.

The owner of the Quinn Blakey hair salon has been fined thousands despite citing Magna Carta as a justification for opening

Sinead Quinn owns a hair salon in Oakenshaw near Bradford. She attempted to open the shop during lockdown, putting a sign in the window declaring that Article 61 of Magna Carta allowed her to opt out of the law and that she "does not consent".

She now owes nearly £20,000 in fines and costs after repeatedly trying to defy coronavirus laws.

Ms Quinn is one of a small number of business owners who have tried to use an obsolete clause in the 800-year-old charter of rights to insist on their freedom to reopen.

Such attempts are part of a larger "pseudolaw" movement - the use of non-existent or outdated legal arguments to defend a case - which goes back decades.

In addition to Article 61, this includes bizarre sounding and legally invalid concepts like "freeman on the land", "sovereign citizens" and "legal name fraud".

They're all based on invalid legal arguments - and on several occasions they've resulted in fines and other legal trouble for the people who attempt to use them.

Some might characterise such attempts as a wilful defiance of the law. But according to Ellie Cumbo, head of public law at the Law Society, such cases often arise from ignorance of the legal system, which is then made worse by poor advice found online.

Some businesses have used a misleading notice found on the internet to justify staying open

The hairdresser and Magna Carta


Ms Quinn has defended her actions, saying that she had a right to earn a living, gaining her support among fringe anti-lockdown campaigners. She has reportedly crowdfunded a five-figure sum to help pay her fines.

She's one of several businesses in the UK, including a tattoo parlour in Bristol and a Christian bookshop in Nottinghamshire, whose owners claim the medieval charter gives them the right to ignore "unjust" laws.

The same notice was posted in extreme anti-lockdown groups on social media, as part of a campaign that called for a "great reopening" of businesses in defiance of the law at the end of January, which largely failed to materialise.

The BBC has asked Ms Quinn for comment.

Much of Magna Carta, a copy of which can be seen here in Salisbury Cathedral, is no longer valid in law

Why Magna Carta?


Magna Carta, signed in 1215 by King John, was a royal charter of rights designed to bring peace between the King and his barons.

Although it is one of the foundational documents of UK law, only four parts of Magna Carta remain valid today - including the right to a fair and timely trial.

None of those still-valid clauses allows citizens to decide which laws should apply to them.

The portion that the activists have been citing, Article 61, was struck from Magna Carta within a year of its signing, and only applied to a small group of barons in the first place, according to fact-checking website Full Fact.

However, belief in Article 61 remains strong in extreme right-wing and anti-establishment circles. Despite the fact that it has no legal standing, it's held up as "the one true law" and seen as justification for rebellion against legal and political "elites".

Ellie Cumbo of the Law Society says that the embrace of "alternative" legal concepts has parallels with the rejection in some quarters of so-called "elitist" scientific expertise across society, which has accelerated during the pandemic.

"Some think they can opt out of law in the same way that some people think they can opt out of science and vaccines," she says.

Billboards warning of 'legal name fraud' appeared in 2016

Sovereign citizens versus the law


Beyond Article 61, people are using other "pseudolaws" to try and fight prosecutions unconnected to Covid legislation.

In recent months, there have been cases in English and Scottish courts where baseless legal concepts have been raised to avoid planning enforcement and driving offences.

In January, a man said he did not consent to a ruling by Stockton Council's planning department that he should remove a balcony from his home, on the grounds that he was a so-called "Freeman on the Land" and did not recognise legal entities such as courts and local councils.

Similarly, a man in Fife told the Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court in February that he did not recognise its authority, saying - according to Dundee's Courier newspaper: "I am a living man, the blood flows, the flesh moves - I wish for remedy".

In both cases, their arguments did not prevail. In fact, no defence based on so-called freeman on the land, sovereign citizen or legal name fraud theory has ever succeeded in court.

The mystery of the 'legal name fraud' billboards

These theories aren't new either. Sovereign citizen theory - which maintains that the individual is independent of the state and can ignore its laws - has been around for decades, and is seen as a domestic terrorism threat by the FBI in the United States.

Little of the original Magna Carta remains in law, but the document still forms an important part of the British legal system

Google results vs actual law


A lack of basic legal knowledge means that people get the wrong idea about how law works, according to Ms Cumbo.

"We rightly celebrate Magna Carta as an important part of our legal system, so it's understandable that people think that the full original text still has full legal standing," she says.

But there is a difference, she notes, between people who deliberately take a stand against laws passed by elites which they think are unfair or not particularly clear and those who have been swept along by bad legal advice from inaccurate sources found online.

A final piece of advice for those wanting to use Magna Carta as the go-to law to fight any grievance?

"Go to a lawyer, not Google," Ms Cumbo says.

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Trump Threatens Retaliatory Tariffs After EU Imposes €2.95 Billion Fine on Google
Tesla Board Proposes Unprecedented One-Trillion-Dollar Performance Package for Elon Musk
US Justice Department Launches Criminal Mortgage-Fraud Probe into Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook
Escalating Drug Trafficking and Violence in Latin America: A Growing Crisis
US and Taiwanese Defence Officials Held Secret Talks in Alaska
Report: Secret SEAL Team 6 Mission in North Korea Ordered by Trump in 2019 Ended in Failure
Gold Could Reach Nearly $5,000 if Fed Independence Is Undermined, Goldman Sachs Warns
Uruguay, Colombia and Paraguay Secure Places at 2026 World Cup
Florida Murder Case: The Adelson Family, the Killing of Dan Markel, and the Trial of Donna Adelson
Trump Administration Advances Plans to Rebrand Pentagon as Department of War Instead of the Fake Term Department of Defense
Big Tech Executives Laud Trump at White House Dinner, Unveil Massive U.S. Investments
Tether Expands into Gold Sector with Profit-Driven Diversification
‘Looks Like a Wig’: Online Users Express Concern Over Kate Middleton
Brand-New $1 Million Yacht Sinks Just Fifteen Minutes After Maiden Launch in Turkey
Here’s What the FBI Seized in John Bolton Raid — and the Legal Risks He Faces
Florida’s Vaccine Revolution: DeSantis Declares War on Mandates
Trump’s New War – and the ‘Drug Tyrant’ Fearing Invasion: ‘1,200 Missiles Aimed at Us’
"The Situation Has Never Been This Bad": The Fall of PepsiCo
At the Parade in China: Laser Weapons, 'Eagle Strike,' and a Missile Capable of 'Striking Anywhere in the World'
The Fashion Designer Who Became an Italian Symbol: Giorgio Armani Has Died at 91
Putin Celebrates ‘Unprecedentedly High’ Ties with China as Gazprom Seals Power of Siberia-2 Deal
China Unveils New Weapons in Grand Military Parade as Xi Hosts Putin and Kim
Queen Camilla’s Teenage Courage: Fended Off Attempted Assault on London Train, New Biography Reveals
Scottish Brothers Set Record in Historic Pacific Row
Rapper Cardi B Cleared of Liability in Los Angeles Civil Assault Trial
Google Avoids Break-Up in U.S. Antitrust Case as Stocks Rise
Couple celebrates 80th wedding anniversary at assisted living facility in Lancaster
Information Warfare in the Age of AI: How Language Models Become Targets and Tools
The White House on LinkedIn Has Changed Their Profile Picture to Donald Trump
"Insulted the Prophet Muhammad": Woman Burned Alive by Angry Mob in Niger State, Nigeria
Trump Responds to Death Rumors – Announces 'Missile City'
Court of Appeal Allows Asylum Seekers to Remain at Essex Hotel Amid Local Tax Boycott Threats
Germany in Turmoil: Ukrainian Teenage Girl Pushed to Death by Illegal Iraqi Migrant
United Krack down on human rights: Graham Linehan Arrested at Heathrow Over Three X Posts, Hospitalised, Released on Bail with Posting Ban
Asian and Middle Eastern Investors Avoid US Markets
Ray Dalio Warns of US Shift to Autocracy
Eurozone Inflation Rises to 2.1% in August
Russia and China Sign New Gas Pipeline Deal
China's Robotics Industry Fuels Export Surge
Suntory Chairman Resigns After Police Probe
Gold Price Hits New All-Time Record
Von der Leyen's Plane Hit by Suspected Russian GPS Interference in an Incident Believed to Be Caused by Russia or by Pro-Peace or by Anti-Corruption European Activists
UK Fintechs Explore Buying US Banks
Greece Suspends 5% of Schools as Birth Rate Drops
Apollo to Launch $5 Billion Sports Investment Vehicle
Bolsonaro Trial Nears Close Amid US-Brazil Tension
European Banks Push for Lower Cross-Border Barriers
Poland's Offshore Wind Sector Attracts Investors
Nvidia Reveals: Two Mystery Customers Account for About 40% of Revenue
Woody Allen: "I Would Be Happy to Direct Trump Again in a Film"
×