Reagan Urged to Leave His 80 Bodyguards Outside

A British member of the European Parliament said today that President Reagan’s planned visit to the assembly next week should be called off unless he leaves his Secret Service bodyguards outside.

“If President Reagan is so disliked that he can only appear with gunmen around him, he ought not to come at all,” Alf Lomas said.

According to the press office of the Parliament’s socialist group, officials have been told Reagan will have an armed guard of up to 80 Secret Service agents, some of whom will patrol the chamber during his speech May 8.

“The Americans are so trigger-happy that I fear that even some quite democratic gesture of opposition to Reagan could well end in bloodshed,” Lomas said in a statement.