Sunak: Far-Right thugs and Hamas sympathisers disrespect our heroes
More than 100 arrested as violence and anti-Semitism mar Armistice Day
RISHI SUNAK has condemned farRight “thugs” and “Hamas sympathisers” after a day of violence in the capital that saw more than 100 arrests.
The Prime Minister said that farRight hooligans clashing with police and pro-Hamas regalia witnessed during the National March for Palestine had disrespected the military and Britain’s fallen on Remembrance Day.
He will meet Sir Mark Rowley, the Met Commissioner, to seek assurances that evidence of anti-Semitic hate crimes will be followed up by the force as robustly as far-Right troublemakers were dealt with.
In what was the biggest pro-Palestinian march to date, hundreds of thousands of people made their way from Marble Arch to the US Embassy in Nine Elms. At the same time, far-Right protesters threw missiles and clashed with police in Whitehall, in a self-proclaimed attempt to “defend the Cenotaph”.
Bottles and a metal barrier were thrown and fighting broke out as police tried to prevent the approximately 1,000 far-Right marchers and football hooligans from reaching the memorial for the 11am silence. After being dispersed, many attempted to reach the pro-Palestine march for further confrontation but were blocked by police.
Matt Twist, the Met’s assistant commissioner, said the counter-protesters had arrived “intent on confrontation and intent on violence” and that a number of groups had split off for a deliberate “confrontation with the main Palestinian march”. He added that nine officers were injured on Whitehall, with two requiring hospital treatment with a fractured elbow and a suspected dislocated hip. Police seized weapons including a knife, a baton and knuckleduster, as well as class A drugs.
Scotland Yard said 82 of the far-Right counter protesters had been arrested in Tachbrook Street, Pimlico, to prevent them clashing with the pro-Palestine marchers, with another 10 held elsewhere. While exact numbers are unclear, the pro-Palestine protest calling for a ceasefire in Gaza was the largest to date. Estimates of attendance vary from 150,000 to 300,000.
The Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA) flagged pro-Palestinian protesters carrying “extreme anti-Semitic” signs, including placards comparing Gaza to Auschwitz and Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, to Hitler. Other protesters were accused of dressing like Hamas terrorists. In a statement on Saturday evening, Mr Sunak said: “I condemn the violent, wholly unacceptable scenes we have seen today from the EDL and associated groups and Hamas sympathisers attending the National March for Palestine.
“The despicable actions of a minority of people undermine those who have chosen to express their views peacefully.”
The Prime Minister said that Remembrance weekend was a time for the UK to “come together as a nation” to “remember those who fought and died for our freedoms.
“What we have seen today does not defend the honour of our Armed Forces, but utterly disrespects them,” he added.
Drawing an equivalence between both groups, he went on: “That is true for EDL thugs attacking police officers and trespassing on the Cenotaph, and it is true for those singing anti-Semitic chants and brandishing pro-Hamas signs and clothing on today’s protest.”
With the vast majority of arrests made relating to far-Right individuals, the Prime Minister said that all criminality “must be met with the full and swift force of the law”. He added: “That is what I told the Met Police Commissioner on Wednesday, that is what they are accountable for and that is what I expect.” Mr Sunak also said he would be meeting Sir Mark “in the coming days”.
In another ugly scene witnessed yesterday, Michael Gove had to be bundled out of Victoria station into a police van to escape pro-Palestinian protesters. The Levelling Up Secretary happened to be passing through the station at the time of a sit-in, and was quickly surrounded by dozens of people chanting: “Shame on you.”
The day’s events unfolded amid continuing debate about whether the police should have allowed the march to go ahead at all. The CAA said that the Jewish community had been left “terrified” by imagery used by marchers which it said “would not have looked out of place in Nazi Germany”.
One placard seen during the protest showed a snake in the colours of the Israeli flag wrapped around the globe – an anti-Semitic conspiracy theory about Jewish control. The CAA confirmed it had received “multiple reports” of synagogue congregants having to be escorted by police “for their own safety”.
The Sunday Telegraph can reveal that in light of recent events the Government’s independent adviser on political violence is to recommend a change in the law to let the police ban marches based on their impact on the Jewish community.
Lord Walney, who is currently completing a review on political violence and disruption for the Home Office, said that the current law specifying that the police can only ban marches if there is a risk of serious disorder is
inadequate. “It is obvious that the marches are at the very least a factor in raising tension, increasing the number of anti-Semitic attacks and the culture of fear and intimidation to which Jewish people are being subjected,” he said.
The disorder also took place against the backdrop of continuing uncertainty over Suella Braverman’s future as Home Secretary after she claimed last week that police had shown partiality in how rigorously they tackle different types of protest.
Yesterday, Mrs Braverman faced accusations from the London Mayor Sadiq Khan that the “scenes of disorder” involving far-Right protesters at the Cenotaph were a “direct result” of her words. In his most outspoken attack on the Home Secretary to date, Sir Keir
Starmer, the Labour leader, accused her of showing a “total lack of respect” for British values because of her criticism of the police and labelling of demonstrators as “hate marchers”.
Writing for this newspaper, Sir Keir said: “Few people in public life have done more recently to whip up division, set the British people against one another and sow the seeds of hatred and distrust than Suella Braverman.”
However, the claim that Mrs Braverman’s words had led to the far-Right violence was dismissed by a Tory MP supportive of the Home Secretary as “ludicrous”. The MP instead said that Ms Braverman had been “proved right” in pressing for the protests to be called out. “This was grimly predictable and it’s playing itself out on our sacred weekend,” they said.