Britain's most persistent anti-war demonstrator has been ordered to quit his protest after four years.
Brian Haw, a carpenter from Redditch in Worcestershire, is to be served with a legal notice to dismantle his makeshift peace camp opposite the House of Commons.
Ministers expect him to be gone by August. But last night he insisted: "I am here to stay."
Mr Haw, aged 56, has kept a vigil since June 2001 in protest at war in general and, more recently, against the invasion of Iraq.
He lives on Parliament Square, a traffic island linking the Commons, Westminster Abbey and Whitehall.
He survived an eviction attempt in October 2002 when a High Court judge refused to grant Westminster Council an injunction to remove him.
MPs also called on the Government to amend the Anti-Social Behaviour Bill with laws designed specifically to deal with Mr Haw.
And Lady Boothroyd, the former MP for West Bromwich West, urged the Government to buy Parliament Square so Mr Haw could be turfed out for trespassing.
The Government is also planning to create a specific offence of spoiling the "visual aspect" of Parliament Square, a law aimed clearly at Mr Haw.
But so far nothing has worked, possibly because police would prefer to avoid physically dragging him away.
Now a Home Office aide has revealed that legal papers are be served within days and Mr Haw will be ordered to leave by July. He has a right of appeal, but this is thought unlikely to succeed.
Mr Haw insisted he would not go without a fight. He said: "Tony Blair and his Government boast to the world about freedom and democracy, and then try to destroy freedom of speech here.
" I am here to protest against genocide. Which should go first - the genocide, or the person shouting against it?"
