London Gaza rally: Rishi Sunak vows to hold Met chief ‘accountable’ over march

Rishi Sunak has stated he’ll hold the Met Police chief “accountable” over a pro-Palestinian march set to happen on Armistice Day.

The prime minister has criticised the timing of the demonstration in London as “provocative and disrespectful”.

But Sir Mark Rowley rejected calls by campaigners to ban the protest, saying such a transfer could be a “last resort”.

Protests have been held in London, and different cities globally, every Saturday because the Israel-Gaza conflict started.

Mr Sunak will use a lunchtime assembly with Sir Mark to “seek further assurances” that the Met Police will probably be “robust” of their dealing with of the march over the remembrance weekend, the prime minister’s official spokesman advised reporters.

The spokesman added that the PM thought-about the protest “completely inappropriate” and “provocative” however that he wouldn’t be placing stress on Sir Mark to ban the march.

Ahead of that assembly, Mr Sunak known as the green-lighting of the march a “decision that the Metropolitan Police Commissioner has made”.

“He has said that he can ensure that we safeguard remembrance for the country this weekend as well as keep the public safe,” Mr Sunak advised broadcasters this morning.

“Now, my job is to hold him accountable for that.”

Mr Sunak stated his authorities had requested the police for data on how they might safeguard remembrance occasions in central London.

“More broadly, my view is that these marches are disrespectful and that’s what I’ll be discussing with the police commissioner later today,” he added.

Sir Mark was due to seem at an occasion on the Institute for Government at present, but it surely was postponed lower than two hours earlier than it was scheduled to start.

On Monday, the Met publicly urged organisers of the march to postpone the occasion, which is due to happen in central London, saying it might not be “appropriate”.

Mr Sunak and Home Secretary Suella Braverman additionally criticised the timing of the occasion, which tens of hundreds of persons are anticipated to attend, whereas Conservative MP Tobias Ellwood, the previous defence minister, appealed to organisers to “think again” and hold the rally on one other day.

But organisers have refused to postpone, stating the deliberate route doesn’t go previous the Cenotaph conflict memorial and the march is due to start at 12:45 after a two-minute’s silence has been held.

On Tuesday, Sir Mark resisted calls, together with from stress group Campaign Against Antisemitism, to request powers from the house secretary to ban the march.

The group claimed earlier marches met the brink check for public dysfunction that will justify the ban.

“As we approach remembrance weekend, where we remember the heroes who defended our freedoms and fought against antisemitic hatred, we must honour their memory by banning demonstrations that abuse those freedoms to call for violence against Jews,” the group stated.

Sir Mark stated that whereas police can request such powers if a menace of significant dysfunction emerges, the “very high” threshold for doing so had not but been reached.

He added that using the facility was “incredibly rare” and there should be no different method for police to handle the occasion.

Sir Mark stated he was involved in regards to the escalating threat of dysfunction attributable to splinter teams breaking off from the principle demonstration on Saturday, saying the menace posed by them could be monitored this week.

Earlier, Veterans Minister Johnny Mercer stated he totally recognised “the tensions at play” however urged individuals to come to London for remembrance occasions.

“I know that elderly veterans will be coming to London and measures will all be in place to make sure that people can go about remembrance in the way they want to unmolested by any of the other events taking place this weekend,” Mr Mercer stated.

Protest organiser Chris Nineham, from the Stop the War Coalition, stated: “We do everything we can as stewards to make sure there is nothing antisemitic or calling for violence in our demonstrations. For us, this isn’t about religion, it isn’t about race.”