Vivienne Westwood’s son calls for her ‘dear friend’ Julian Assange to be freed

Joseph Corré speaks out as family and friends pay tribute to designer at memorial service in London

Dame Vivienne Westwood’s son has called for his mother’s “dear friend” Julian Assange to be freed during an address at the late designer’s memorial.

In a tribute delivered from the pulpit at Southwark Cathedral, the activist Joseph Corré praised his mother’s clothes, their relationship and her legacy. “To Vivienne, punk was a political idea not a social one,” he said, before criticising the “trumped up accusations from a corrupt establishment” that had meant that, despite the family’s best efforts, Assange was not present at the service.