Mayor criticises Braverman over protest disorder
A ROW broke out yesterday over who was responsible for ugly scenes in London as Sadiq Khan accused Suella Braverman of riling up the far-Right.
The Mayor of London said violent clashes involving counter-protesters were a “direct result” of the Home Secretary’s words, after she accused the Metropolitan Police of bias towards “pro-Palestinian mobs”.
Humza Yousaf, the Scottish leader, also claimed the far-Right has been “emboldened” by Ms Braverman “fanning the flames of division” and demanded her resignation.
But Tory MP James Sunderland, a close aide to the Home Secretary, suggested she was right to call for the pro-Palestinian march to be cancelled, saying the fallout was “exactly what any rational person could have predicted”.
The capital was blighted by unrest on Armistice Day, with more than 100 people detained as far-Right groups clashed with police.
It came as 300,000 demonstrators descended on London for a huge march protesting Israel’s strikes on Gaza.
Skirmishes began yesterday morning as far-Right groups tried to reach the Cenotaph, with people breaking through police lines near Scotland Yard.
The vast majority of the arrests involved counter-protesters connected to football hooliganism, according to Scotland Yard sources.
Another Conservative MP, a fellow supporter of Ms Braverman, said the idea she had “somehow contributed” to the disruption was “ludicrous”, arguing she had in fact been “proved right”.
“It’s pretty clear that the Home Secretary had significant concerns about this weekend and the risk of being public disorder", the MP said.
Ms Braverman’s political fate has been hanging in the balance since she accused the Met of “playing favourites” with protesters.
In an article for The Times, she claimed the force employed a “double standard” by taking a softer approach towards “pro-Palestinian mobs” than Right-wing demonstrators.
The final version of the piece, in which she described pro-Palestinian marches as an “assertion of primacy by certain groups – particularly Islamists – of the kind we are more used to seeing in Northern Ireland”, was not signed off by Number 10.
Insiders have suggested Rishi Sunak now faces a political calculation over whether having Ms Braverman on the backbenches could be more problematic than keeping her in the Cabinet.
Mr Khan said her words had made the police’s job “much harder”.
“The Met have my support to take action against anyone found spreading hate and breaking the law,” he added.
Mr Yousaf tweeted: “The far-Right has been emboldened by the Home Secretary. She has spent her week fanning the flames of division. They are now attacking the police on Armistice Day.
“The Home Secretary’s position is untenable. She must resign.”
Labour shadow minister Matt Western said the “shocking” scenes were reminiscent of the riot at the Capitol that followed Donald Trump’s defeat in the last US election.
He claimed the disorder was “incited” by the Home Secretary and Mr Sunak was “complicit through his own weakness and inaction”, adding: “Surely this demands an inquiry?”
Former deputy prime minister Damian Green took a veiled swipe at Ms Braverman. “Everyone, especially senior politicians, should use words carefully at times of tension,” he said.
Tory MP Mark Jenkinson appeared to suggest the Met were taking a harder line on far-Right protesters than others.
He tweeted: “Fascists march through our capital city, this morning and this afternoon. Appears to have been a very different \@***metpoliceuk response, and nothing on this afternoon’s genocidal chants from \@***hopenothate”.
Meanwhile, pro-Palestinian protesters were seen carrying signs comparing Gaza to Auschwitz and Benjamin Netanyahu to Hitler.
Another placard showed a snake in the colours of the Israeli flag wrapped around the globe, an anti-Semitic conspiracy theory about Jewish control.
Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury, posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, that “two wrongs don’t make a right” regarding the conflict.
He said: “The relentless bombardment of hospitals and civilians in Gaza is intolerable.”
“It’s against international humanitarian law – it must stop and stop now. The misuse of hospitals by Hamas does not justify attacks by Israel. Two wrongs don’t make a right.”
He added that the situation facing staff and patients in Gazan hospitals was “catastrophic”.
Israel has said the doctors, patients and evacuees sheltering in hospitals in northern Gaza must leave so that it can target Hamas, which it says has built command centres beneath and around the hospitals. Hamas has denied that it uses hospitals in this way.
‘The misuse of hospitals by Hamas does not justify attacks by Israel. Two wrongs don’t make a right’