AN ANNUAL protest against a US military base in Yorkshire will go ahead on July 4, campaigners announced yesterday.

The protest calling for “Independence From America” will also take place online, with speakers including Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament chair Professor Dave Webb.

Menwith Hill in rural North Yorkshire is nominally a Royal Air Force base, but is run by the US National Security Agency.

The sprawling site houses radio antennae linked to US satellites, gathering military, economic and political information which is fed back to the Pentagon.

It has played a role in US wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and is a key link in US drone attacks.

The base has been targeted by peace campaigners for more than 40 years.

Campaigners stage weekly vigils outside the base, and on US Independence Day, July 4, each year demonstrations are held to call for Britain’s independence from the US.

Next Saturday’s in-person demonstration will involve a small number of campaigners, in line with Covid-19 restrictions, but the online event planned by the Menwith Hill Accountability Campaign will be larger.

The campaigners said: “President Trump recently confirmed the establishment of a ‘Space Force’ as a new arm of the US military arsenal. 

“Menwith Hill is part of a network of bases all over the world which will be used by the US to facilitate war in space. 

“The UK has signed up to the Outer Space Treaty (1967) on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space and should fulfil its obligations under these treaties by asking the US to remove the base at Menwith Hill.”