Met face fresh scrutiny for coronation arrests

Police have come under fresh criticism for arrests at the coronation, with a safety volunteer claiming her group was specifically targeted and a protest leader saying he was prevented from contacting a named liaison officer.

Accusations of heavyhandedness and bowing to political pressure have been aimed at the Metropolitan Police over the force’s handling of the event, which saw a total of 62 arrests.

Six members of antimonarchy group Republic were held for 16 hours before being released without charge, while volunteers for Westminster Council safety scheme Night Stars were detained in the early hours of May 6 and not released until the late afternoon.

A complaint has also been lodged by royal fan Alice Chambers, 36, who was held in custody for 13 hours after being mistaken for a Just Stop Oil protester as she waited on the Mall hoping to catch a glimpse of the King.

Night Stars volunteer Suzie Melvin told MPs yesterday that officers had gone out specifically looking for those involved in the safety scheme, which hands out rape alarms as part of anti-spiking kits.

Giving evidence to the Commons home affairs committee, which has launched an urgent investigation into the arrests, she said: “I was informed by the officer who arrested me that they were specifically looking for the Night Stars and they had been told where we were going to be.”

Explaining how her team was approached by police who wanted to stop and search them, she told MPs: “Then they also searched the church we base ourselves out of.”

Committee hairwoman Dame Diana Johnson said she was “a bit speechless” at details of what had happened. The volunteers were released without charge.

Republic chief executive Graham Smith said the group had been in contact with the Metropolitan Police for months before the coronation to agree details of its planned protest.

But on the morning of May 6 six supporters unloading placards were arrested on suspicion of planning to lock-on – a tactic used by protesters to make themselves harder to move.

The six were the first to be arrested under the new Public Order Act, which came into force days before the coronation, over their possession of luggage straps.

Mr Smith told MPs: “I named the superintendent we’d met in person. I named the liaison officer and attempted to phone her and he (the arresting officer) twice stopped me from doing that, including grabbing my wrist and removing the phone from my hand.”

He also questioned the definition of devices that could be used to lock-on. I’ve turned up today with five lock-on devices on my person. My tie, my watch, my belt and two shoelaces.”

Earlier, Metropolitan Police temporary assistant commissioner Matt Twist rejected accusations that the force had faced political pressure to crack down on protesters.

The i newspaper quoted an anonymous police source saying there had been “a very firm instruction not to damage the reputation of the UK”.

Mr Twist told the committee: “There were 312 protected people that we managed to get in and out of the abbey and across the footprint in about 90 minutes.

“So the stakes were enormously high, so I absolutely felt pressure to deliver a safe and secure operation. But that wasn’t political pressure.”