[6] His father, Robert William Haw (1925–1964), served as a sniper in the Reconnaissance Corps in the Second World War, and had been one of the first British soldiers to enter the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.

[6] On 2 June 2001, he began camping in Parliament Square in central London in a one-man political protest against war and foreign policy (initially, the Economic sanctions against Iraq).

[9] He originally camped on the grass in Parliament Square, but the Greater London Authority took legal action to remove him, so he relocated to the pavement, which was administered by Westminster City Council instead.

The House of Commons Procedure Committee held a brief inquiry in summer 2003 which heard evidence that permanent protests in Parliament Square could provide an opportunity for terrorists to disguise explosive devices, and resulted in a recommendation that the law be changed to prohibit them.

[13] In the 2005 general election Haw stood as a candidate in the Cities of London and Westminster in order to further his campaign and oppose the Act which was yet to come into force.

He won 298 votes (0.8 per cent), making a speech against the ongoing presence of UK troops in Iraq at the declaration of the result.

"[15] In the meantime Haw had applied for permission to continue his demonstration, and received it on condition that his display of placards was no more than 3 metres (9.8 ft) wide (among other things).

Haw was unwilling to comply and the police referred his case to the Crown Prosecution Service; a number of supporters began camping with him in order to deter attempts to evict him.

At a licensing hearing at Westminster City Council on 30 June 2006, Haw was granted limited permission to use a loudspeaker in the space allowed to him.

On 22 January 2007 Haw was acquitted on the grounds that the conditions he was accused of breaching were not sufficiently clear, and that they should have been imposed by a police officer of higher rank.

[21] A Man Called Brian was a 2005 documentary film by Mahmoud Shoolizadeh[22] about Haw and his ten-year, 24/7 anti-war protest in Parliament Square.

The judge ruled that there was no case for the Respondent, Brian Haw, to answer on a charge of knowingly failing to comply with a condition imposed under Section 134 of the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005 ('SOCA') in respect of a demonstration in Parliament Square.

The hearing before the Administrative Court was adjourned because Mr Haw had not been served with relevant documents in time to give them proper consideration.

The appellant, Barbara Tucker, was convicted under Section 132 (1)(c) of the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005 (SOCPA), of being within the jurisdiction of the Central Criminal Court, and carrying on unauthorised demonstration by herself in a public place in a designated area, namely Parliament Square.

Seven people were arrested including Haw, who said "I was filming the students lying down in the road when one officer stepped forward, as I was walking back, and pushed the camera with his hand.

[41] Banksy had previously described Haw as 'the best inspiration in London' in a hand written dedication to him in a copy of the book Wall and Peace.

[42] in 2011 London Assembly Member Jenny Jones called for Westminster Council to erect a blue plaque for Brian Haw immediately, bypassing English Heritage's criteria that the person commemorated should have been dead for two decades or passed the centenary of their birth, whichever is the earlier.

The monument gives an account of Brian Haw's protest through the experiences of his longest-serving supporter, actor Michael Culver.

In 2023 Actor Sir Mark Rylance headed a crowdfunding campaign to erect a small bronze maquette on a plinth opposite the big guns of the Imperial War Museum in Lambeth.

[45] Running the length of the Duveen Gallery, State Britain was a painstaking reconstruction of the display confiscated by the Metropolitan Police in 2006.

[50] Zia Trench's debut play, The State We're In, based on Haw's life, was performed for the first time at the 2009 Edinburgh Fringe, featuring Michael Byrne in the lead role and directed by Justin Butcher.