Morale within ranks of Met Police hit ‘rock bottom’
Officers are under increasing pressure from pro-Palestinian protests. By
Morale within the Metropolitan Police is at “rock bottom” as pressure mounts on Britain’s largest force over its handling of pro-Palestinian protests, insiders have warned.
Serving and former Scotland Yard officers raised questions about the toll being taken on frontline personnel from policing the protests, saying that staff faced having their leave cancelled and were being left unable to carry out their “normal job” of patrolling London’s boroughs.
The Metropolitan Police Federation (MPF), which represents rank-and-file staff, said officers were being asked to do a “near-impossible job” during the protests and found themselves liable to “trial by social media” where they had been required to act spontaneously with “no benefit of hindsight”.
The MPF said the burden of policing the central London protests was having a knock-on effect on the service provided elsewhere in the capital. In January, the Yard revealed that policing pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli marches had cost it £26.5m since the Hamas massacres on 7 October 2023.
The MPF said: “Every weekend Metropolitan Police officers are having their leave and days off cancelled to facilitate these protests – while their normal job patrolling their local boroughs is just not getting done.
“Whilst the protests we have seen are in the main peaceful, the constant criticism and the trial by social media our officers suffer whilst policing them is unfair to hard-working police officers. “Our colleagues on the front line are in a near-impossible job. Damned if we do, damned if we don’t, whilst trying to keep London moving and keep people safe.”
Insiders at the Yard, whose leaders, including chief
Sir Mark Rowley, have faced months of criticism over issues including the handling of the anti-war protests related to Gaza and broader questions over professional standards within the force, said the latest dispute had damaged already low morale.
One former officer said: “Things are at absolutely rock bottom in terms of morale. There is no doubt that the wrong words were used in the case of Mr [Gideon] Falter. But the pressures officers are working under are immense.
“There are just not the resources available to police these protests and get the day job done at the same time. There is a very strong sense that you are permanently only a hair’s breadth from a social media pile-on just for doing your job. And that has a very real effect on people’s willingness to do that job.”
Police chiefs have repeatedly emphasised that they have an obligation to facilitate peaceful protest amid a global outcry over the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza.
But the demonstrations have at the same time become a touchstone for complaints from some politicians and campaigners over what they say is a lenient attitude to hate speech from some taking part in the marches.
Nearly a third of officers intend to resign from the force within the next two years or “as soon as they can”.