Sunak meets Metropolitan Police chief in wake of Armistice Day unrest
The Prime Minister is meeting Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley following last Saturday’s violent scenes in London.
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Your support makes all the difference.Rishi Sunak is meeting Metropolitan Police chief Sir Mark Rowley, following last Saturday’s unrest around the Cenotaph and the pro-Palestinian demonstration in central London.
It also comes a day after the Prime Minister sacked Suella Braverman as home secretary, after she branded pro-Palestinian protesters “hate marchers” and accused the police of bias for letting a rally go ahead on Armistice Day.
Mrs Braverman had also been blamed for stoking tensions after scenes of far-right violence towards officers on Saturday resulted in dozens of arrests.
The public rightly expect that the full force of the law is used to bear down on some of the shocking scenes of criminality we saw over the weekend
Number 10 said the powers available to officers to deal with protests would be kept under review to see if they need to be beefed up.
There have been suggestions that ministers could give police greater powers to tackle protests following the clashes over the weekend.
The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said: “The public rightly expect that the full force of the law is used to bear down on some of the shocking scenes of criminality we saw over the weekend, whether it was EDL protesters or those seemingly supporting Hamas, a proscribed terrorist organisation.”
He added: “The Prime Minister continues to be grateful to police officers, a number of whom were injured over the weekend.
“They have an extremely difficult job to do and he was grateful to them for doing it.”
He said Mr Sunak would be speaking to Sir Mark to “get a shared understanding of how to approach these protests should there be significant protests in the future”.
“It’s important that police have the powers they need to carry out their role and we will continue to keep that under review.”
The Metropolitan Police Commissioner has come under pressure from politicians after several weeks of demonstrations for a ceasefire in the escalating conflict between Israel and Hamas.
Saturday’s march coincided with Armistice Day and multiple Conservative MPs had urged organisers to cancel the demonstration, which Mr Sunak had branded “provocative and disrespectful”.
The Prime Minister had said that both far-right “thugs” and “those singing antisemitic chants and brandishing pro-Hamas signs and clothing” must face “the full and swift force of the law” following Saturday’s unrest.
Sir Mark also met Mrs Braverman’s replacement, James Cleverly. The Home Office said the new Home Secretary will work with the force to “drive down crime”.