MPs to probe Coronation policing after arrest of anti-monarchy group
AN inquiry into the Metropolitan Police’s arrests of anti-monarchy protesters over King Charles’s Coronation weekend is to be launched.
The cross-party home affairs committee met this morning and discussed the response to the event after new powers to deal with demonstrators were given to police under the Public Order Act.
A committee spokesman said: “The committee will hold an evidence session on the policing of the Coronation and arrest of republican protesters next Wednesday, May 17. The session will examine the Met’s approach to policing public protests and the practical implementation of the Public Order Bill. A full list of witnesses will be announced in the coming days.”
Officers arrested 64 people in London over the Coronation, including six anti-monarchy protesters who were later released without charge.
The Met defended the arrests, but expressed “regret” that members of the Republic campaign group were taken into custody on Saturday.
The group said it is considering legal action against the police force.
Chairwoman of the Home Affairs Committee Dame Diana Johnson today said there were “real questions” about how potential protesters were dealt with.
The Labour MP told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “We will want to consider whether we want to spend some time looking at those particular issues, recognising of course that this was a huge policing operation over the weekend to keep people safe and was very successful.
“But actually that issue of how protests were policed is something that has raised concerns, particularly about the implementation of this very new Act of Parliament, the Public Order Act 2023, and in particular section two, which is about going equipped to lock-on, which seems to have been at the core of why members of Republic were arrested around the use of luggage tags.”
Dame Diana said the committee would be interested in reviewing how broad the law is and “what guidance was given to front line police officers and whether there is an issue about training”.
Raising the fact that discussions were held between the Met and Republic in the months leading up to Saturday’s service, she said she wanted to know “what exactly was arranged and agreed and why did front line officers not know about that and not know about the agreement, for example, around use of megaphones and perhaps this issue around luggage straps”.
The Met has claimed intelligence leading up to the Coronation had indicated that people were planning to throw rape alarms at horses on the procession route to cause a potential stampede and that paint could be thrown at the King’s carriage.