Yard chief won’t stop ‘hate march’

Backlash after Met boss refuses to block ‘provocative’ rally through the capital on Armistice Day

THE head of the Metropolitan Police faced a political backlash last night after refusing demands to stop an anti-Israel march through London on Armistice Day.

Sir Mark Rowley was warned by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak that protesters might ‘desecrate’ the Cenotaph, where a parade, twominute silence and wreath-laying ceremony will commemorate Britain’s war dead on Saturday.

Mr Sunak said the timing of the march was ‘provocative and disrespectful’. Ministers and MPs also urged the Met commissioner to ban the rally, which is expected to attract up to a million people.

Home Secretary Suella Braverman called it ‘entirely unacceptable to desecrate Armistice Day with a hate march’, adding that it posed an obvious risk of serious public disorder ‘as well as giving offence to millions of decent British people’.

But Sir Mark resisted the calls, promising the Met would use ‘all its powers’ to prevent disruption.

The Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC), which is organising the march, said demonstrators would march from Hyde Park to the US Embassy in Battersea.

Tory party chairman Greg Hands told the MoS that the Met should prevent the march, adding: ‘These commemorations are sacrosanct.’

Louie French was one of 12 MPs who wrote to Sir Mark demanding he use his powers ‘to prevent this disruption’. He told the MoS: ‘Remembrance weekend is the wrong time to do it. I am particularly concerned for the Jewish community, with the rise in antiSemitism. It’s just toxic.’

Pro-Palestinian demonstrations have taken place in London and other cities every weekend since Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, killing more than 1,400 people. The protests have been marred by violence and anti-Semitic abuse.

There are also fears that Saturday night’s Festival of Remembrance at the Royal Albert Hall, attended by the King and Queen and the Prince and Princess of Wales, might also be disrupted.

Charles will lead the biggest act of commemoration, the National Service of Remembrance, at the Cenotaph on Sunday. Tory MP Bob Blackman expressed concern about a ‘potential threat’ to Charles, adding that he was ‘disappointed’ Sir Mark had allowed the previous day’s protest. ‘The concern has to be that some of the more thuggish demonstrators will leave the route and seek to disrupt the service,’ he said.

Sir Mark cannot cancel a march himself, but must apply to the Home Secretary. Mrs Braverman effectively invited him to do so yesterday by setting out the mechanism on X, formerly Twitter. She posted a link to a 2011 precedent when the police applied to the then Home Secretary Theresa May to ban an English Defence League march, which she agreed to.

A No10 source said: ‘The PM has made it very clear he believes the Met has the power to stop protests that seriously disrupt or intimidate, and now it’s a decision for the operationally independent Met.’

The PSC said it would challenge any banning decision in court. A

•A JEWISH woman has reportedly been stabbed at her home in France – as police launch a manhunt for a suspect dressed in black after finding a swastika painted on her door. The victim, believed to be 30, was knifed twice in the stomach when she answered the door at around 1pm yesterday in Lyon. The male attacker fled and is still at large. The woman was rushed to hospital but is not in a life-threatening condition. Police could not confirm whether they were treating it as an anti-Semitic hate crime. France has been facing a wave of anti-Semitic attacks since the outbreak of the Hamas/Israel war.

senior PSC member said the march would begin almost two hours after the Cenotaph ceremony. Insisting there was no risk of disruption, the official added: ‘This march will be calling for a ceasefire in Gaza.’

Last night, Ben Jamal, director of the PSC, warned that Mr Sunak and Mrs Braverman’s comments could encourage far-Right extremists to hold counter-demos.

Nick Lowles, of the anti-racist group Searchlight, said the language around the protests needed to be toned down, tweeting: ‘Suella Braverman and other political commentators need to lower the temperature of the debate before things get out of hand.’

But Tory London Assembly member Neil Garratt, who signed the MPs’ letter, said: ‘The only reason for protesters to march on Armistice Day is to provoke a reaction. It is wrong. Police must not allow it.’

Rear Admiral Chris Parry said of

Sir Mark: ‘If I was in his position and there was a risk of violence, I would ban it. If there is violence or desecration of the Cenotaph, he should resign because he allowed it to happen. If there is desecration, I expect the organisers to be charged.’

General Richard Dannatt, former

Chief of the General Staff, said: ‘If there is trouble, and he gets it wrong, he will have to resign.’

The Royal British Legion said it respected ‘the right of people to protest’, but Armistice Day was not a time ‘for political protests’.

Yesterday, Policing Minister

Chris Philp took Gary Lineker on, urging the ex-England captain to reconsider his tweet that the Armistice Day protest was not a ‘hate march’. He posted: ‘Gary – calling for “intifada” and “jihad” (as many at the protests have done) is NOT a call for ceasefire or peace.’