Babak Belurs: Pro-Palestinian protest in London: Row over Suella Braverman’s claim of police bias

Kamis, 09 November 2023

Pro-Palestinian protest in London: Row over Suella Braverman’s claim of police bias - BBC

By Henry Zeffman & Joshua Nevett

BBC Politics

A row has erupted over Home Secretary Suella Braverman's attack on the Metropolitan Police for its handling of pro-Palestinian protests.

Writing in The Times, Ms Braverman accused the force of applying a "double standard" to its policing of protests.

She claimed aggressive right-wing protesters were "rightly met with a stern response", while "pro-Palestinian mobs" were "largely ignored".

Her comments have been condemned by former police officers and MPs.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is facing calls to sack Ms Braverman, with Labour accusing the home secretary of undermining police independence and "deliberately creating division".

One senior Conservative MP told the BBC: "The home secretary's awfulness is now a reflection on the prime minister. Keeping her in post is damaging him."

But the home secretary's allies on the right of the Conservative Party have defended her and argued that a pro-Palestinian march planned for Saturday in central London should not have been allowed to go ahead.

Conservative MP Danny Kruger denied Mrs Braverman was interfering, and said she was entitled to comment on the "broader culture of police".

This video can not be played

To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.

Ms Braverman comments came after Prime Minister Rishi Sunak held a meeting with Met Police commissioner Sir Mark Rowley to discuss security ahead of a pro-Palestinian march taking place this Saturday, which is also Armistice Day.

Neither Mr Sunak or Ms Braverman have publicly called for the police to ban Saturday's march, but the prime minister has urged organisers to call it off, saying the choice of date was "provocative and disrespectful".

In an article for The Times, the home secretary claimed that there was "a perception that senior officers play favourites when it comes to protesters".

The home secretary said the pro-Palestinian marches, which began last month in response to Israel's siege of Gaza, had been "problematic" because of "violence around the fringes" as well as "highly offensive" chants, posters and stickers.

"Right-wing and nationalist protesters who engage in aggression are rightly met with a stern response yet pro-Palestinian mobs displaying almost identical behaviour are largely ignored, even when clearly breaking the law," she wrote.

The BBC has been told Mr Sunak's team suggested amendments to the home secretary's draft, but not all of them were applied to the eventual article published last night.

A government source told the BBC: "We are not commenting on internal process."

There have been regular protests in London after Hamas gunmen launched an unprecedented assault on Israel from the Gaza Strip on 7 October, killing more than 1,400 people and taking more than 200 hostages.

Israel has been carrying out strikes on Gaza since then in response, and has now also launched a ground offensive. More than 10,500 people have been killed in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.

London's police force has faced increasing pressure to prevent Saturday's pro-Palestinian march from going ahead.

But Met Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley has said it may only be stopped if there is a threat of serious disorder, and that the "very high threshold" has not been reached.

More on Israel-Gaza war

Follow live: Latest updates
From Gaza: Palestinian given two hours to evacuate whole neighbourhood
From Israel: Pain still raw a month after Hamas attacks
Watch: BBC's Jeremy Bowen in Gaza with Israeli forces
Explained: Who are the hostages taken by Hamas from Israel?
History behind the story: The Israel-Palestinian conflict

Plenty of the home secretary's colleagues agree with Ms Braverman on the substance of her article, but they are frustrated by repeatedly having to defend - or distance themselves from - her rhetoric.

One government figure told the BBC Mrs Braverman's intervention was "unhinged".

Labour's shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper described it as a "dangerous attempt to undermine respect for police", while London mayor Sadiq Khan said it was "irresponsible".

"The PM's weakness when it comes to standing up to Suella is the most shocking thing in all this," claimed a senior Labour source.

Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey said Mr Sunak "must finally act with integrity by sacking his out-of-control home secretary".

"Suella Braverman is now putting police officers in harm's way ahead of far right protesters flocking to the capital this weekend," Sir Ed said.

He said her remarks demonstrated the "increasing politicisation of policing", and how the march is handled should be an operational matter for officers.

A graphic showing the route of the pro-Palestinian march

In her article, Ms Braverman wrote that she believed the marches were not "merely a cry for help for Gaza", but an "assertion of primacy by certain groups - particularly Islamists - of the kind we are more used to seeing in Northern Ireland".

A source close to the home secretary told the BBC the comment was a reference to the activities of "dissident republicans".

Responding to the article, one Conservative Party source called the comparison with Northern Ireland "wholly offensive and ignorant".

Ms Braverman also questioned why "lockdown objectors were given no quarter by public order police yet Black Lives Matters demonstrators were enabled, allowed to break rules".

"I have spoken to serving and former police officers who have noted this double standard," the home secretary wrote.

Former cabinet minister Nadine Dorries claimed Ms Braverman was trying to get sacked to give her a platform of martyrdom in service of the right-wing.

"The competition is on now for who is going to be the leader of the opposition," Ms Dorries told the BBC.