Met Police antisemitism row - live: Gideon Falter says police response ‘shambolic’ as Sunak backs Mark Rowley
Gideon Falter, the chief executive of the Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA), denies these claims
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Your support makes all the difference.Gideon Falter has renewed his criticism of the Met Police, claiming he has not been offered a meeting with Sir Mark Rowley as the commissioner suggested.
Sir Rowley and London mayor Sadiq Khan met with members of London’s Jewish community, including the Board of Deputies of British Jews, the London Jewish Forum and the Community Safety Trust, earlier today.
In a statement, Mr Falter said: “Since the incident, the Met has issued and withdrawn a series of statements, some apologetic and some belligerent. There have also been suggestions in the media that the Commissioner, Sir Mark Rowley, has offered to meet with me. No such meeting has been offered”.
“The Met’s response to this incident has been shambolic,” he added.
This comes as prime minister Rishi Sunak expressed his confidence in under-fire commissioner Sir Mark.
Speaking at a Downing Street press conference this morning, Mr Sunak said: “What happened was clearly wrong. And it’s right that they’ve apologised for that.
“I do have confidence in him, but that’s on the basis that he works to rebuild the confidence and trust of not just the Jewish community, but the wider public, particularly people in London but more broadly,” he added.
Rishi Sunak ‘appalled’ at Met over ‘openly Jewish’ remark
Rishi Sunak is “appalled” at the Metropolitan Police’s handling of the incident and will hold the Met commissioner to account.
A government source said: “The PM has seen the footage and is as appalled as everyone else by the officer calling Mr Falter ‘openly Jewish’.
“He expects the Met commissioner to account for how it happened, and what he will do to ensure officers do more to make Jewish communities in London feel safe.”
Watch: Suella Braverman calls Mark Rowley to resign
Board of Deputies of British Jews President is not yet calling for the Commissioner’s resignation
Ahead of a meeting with Sir Mark today, Marie van der Zyl, the president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, said she is not yet calling for the Commissioner’s resignation, but some serious incidents are causing the Jewish community to have a “complete loss of confidence in the police”.
She told Times Radio: “Historically, the Jewish community has always had a very good relationship with the police and I think it’s really important that we do so going forward.
“And the responsible thing to do is to put our concerns, and they have been widely, widely publicised. And it’s up to the police now to be able to tell us what they’re going to be able to do.
“And if the police feel that they need more legislation, then that’s also a matter for the Government and the Home Secretary.”
Sir Mark to discuss protests with mayor Sadiq Khan and Jewish groups
Sir Mark will meet members of London’s Jewish community and mayor Sadiq Khan today to discuss “community relations” following the force’s handing of the incident.
They are expected to speak to representatives of organisations including the Board of Deputies of British Jews, the London Jewish Forum and the Community Safety Trust.
He will also meet Home Secretary James Cleverly in the coming days.
Read the full article here:
Met Commissioner to discuss protests with mayor and Jewish groups
Sir Mark Rowley’s job appears to be secure despite calls for him to resign over the policing of pro-Palestine protests.
Met Police response to Gideon Falter was ‘way over the top’, government minister says
Deputy Foreign Secretary Andrew Mitchell said the Metropolitan Police’s response to Gideon Falter was “way over the top”.
He told ITV’s Good Morning Britain: “I think the police do a difficult job, so I’m not looking to point the finger at individual police officers.
“But I do think that threatening to arrest him was way over the top and outrageous, and I’m very pleased that the police have apologised multiple times for that error.”
He said the future of Met Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley is a matter for the Home Secretary but “I don’t, myself, think it’s very helpful to call for his resignation”.
Suella Braverman: The Met Police have ‘chosen a side’ by failing to curb antisemitic violence
Suella Braverman said the Metropolitan Police have “chosen a side” and failed to curb risks of antisemitic violence arising from pro-Palestinian marches following the threatened arrest of an antisemitism campaigner trying to cross the road at the same time as a protest.
Ms Braverman, who was sacked as home secretary in November after a series of controversial comments, including accusing the police of bias over their handling of pro-Palestinian “hate marchers”, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme there had been a “wholesale failure” by the force to “combat antisemitism and to maintain the peace on the streets of London over the past six months”.
Urging the police to ban marches which posed a “risk of antisemitic violence”, she added: “What this video shows, and what this incident demonstrates, is that the police have failed to strike the right balance of competing rights.”
“At this point in time there is unprecedented antisemitism on our streets, there is disproportionate police resourcing being deployed to police these marches and the police have chosen a side,” she added.
Ms Braverman urged the police to be tougher on pro-Palestinian protesters, who she said were “in large part communicating antisemitic slogans, waving antisemitic placards, intimidating and harassing”.
Gideon Falter says he will join next pro-Palestinian march despite ‘openly Jewish’ comments
Gideon Falter, chief executive of the CAA said he would turn up at the next pro-Palestinian march and encouraged other Jews and allies to join him.
Mr Falter told ITV’s Good Morning Britain: “It’s not, for me, about these frontline officers. It’s about the decisions that have been made for six months now by Sir Mark Rowley, who has failed abjectly to stand up for Jewish Londoners and he seems to have thrown our rights, he’s curtailed our rights and our ability to walk around the street, in favour of letting these huge groups of protesters do what they want to do.”
Ahead of the next march on Saturday, Mr Falter said: “After this all happened, I felt it’s actually very important that Jews feel that they can walk the streets.”
His campaign has launched a “walk together” initiative to follow the route of the march and “force the police to make sure that these things are safe for Jewish people”.
“We’ve been gaslit, essentially, for months now by the Met, because the Met keeps saying ‘these things are safe, nothing to worry about, they’re brilliantly policed’, and the reality is that’s not true and it’s so badly policed, that if you are a Jew on the sideline of this thing, they have to threaten you with arrest to get rid of you.
“And one of the things I just cannot understand is, with this whole situation, where is the Mayor of London Sadiq Khan and where is the Home Secretary James Cleverly in all this?”
Met Police officers had not been ‘as well led as they should be’, government minister says
Government minister Andrew Mitchell suggested Met Police officers had not been “as well led as they should be”.
The deputy foreign secretary told Times Radio: “I don’t have any criticism of the police officers who are doing an extremely difficult job on the ground and trying to police these marches.
“But I don’t think necessarily they’re being as well led as they should be.
“And that’s why it’s not so much the tactical approach as the strategic approach to the way these marches are dealt with that needs to be held to account.”
He added: “That is a matter for the Metropolitan Police Commission to explain: The way in which he is leading his police, the way in which he is conducting the policing of these marches and that’s something the Home Secretary, I know, will be following up.”
Home Secretary James Cleverly will hold Sir Mark to account
Deputy foreign secretary Andrew Mitchell said Home Secretary James Cleverly would hold Sir Mark Rowley to account for the way pro-Palestine protests have been handled.
Mr Mitchell told Sky News: “I think it was an appalling episode and the Home Secretary will undoubtedly hold Sir Mark, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, to account for what happened.
“I think the police do an incredibly difficult job on these occasions, so I am not criticising the bobby on the beat who was policing the demonstration.
“But I think there are strategic issues… how we ensure that Jewish people, people of any faith at all, can go about their business in London and not be impeded in the way that he was and not be stopped from walking through the streets of London because of the demonstrations that were taking place.
“That’s a strategic issue and it needs to be resolved by the police.”
More than 7,000 people sign petition calling for Sir Mark ‘to go’
More than 7,400 people have signed a petition calling for Sir Mark “to go” launched by the Campaign Against Semitism, whose chief executive Gideon Falter was the campaigner at the centre of the incident.
Mr Falter said he accepted the assistant commissioner’s apology for the original Met statement but insists he needs to stand down.
Both Mr Falter and former home secretary Suella Braverman have called for Sir Mark to resign, saying he has “emboldened” antisemites by failing to curtail the marches.
Ahead of a meeting with Sir Mark this week, Marie van der Zyl, the president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, said she is not yet calling for the Commissioner’s resignation, but some serious incidents are causing the Jewish community to have a “complete loss of confidence in the police”.
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