Britain’s interior minister escalated a dispute with London’s police force over the handling of a planned, large pro-Palestinian march on Armistice Day, accusing officers of taking a softer stance towards left-wing causes, Reuters reports.
Home Secretary Suella Braverman has taken a tough line on the tens of thousands of protesters who have gathered in London, calling them “hate marches” and “mobs” that threaten the Jewish community.
Critics in opposing parties and her own have accused her of stoking division and undermining the police. They also questioned her commitment to free speech after she questioned why some public gatherings should not be banned when they are offensive.
Increasing the tension, police have said they expect a large rally on Saturday, November 11, the anniversary of the end of World War One, prompting fears that counter-protesters will also descend on the capital, which could lead to violence.
London police chief Mark Rowley has said that any ban would require intelligence of a threat of serious disorder and that so far that threshold had not been crossed.
“I do not believe that these marches are merely a cry for help for Gaza,” Braverman, who is on the right of her party and is the minister in charge of policing, wrote in The Times.
“They are an assertion of primacy by certain groups — particularly Islamists — of the kind we are more used to seeing in Northern Ireland,” she said.
“Unfortunately, there is a perception that senior police officers play favourites when it comes to protesters,” she wrote, contrasting what she said was the different way anti-lockdown protesters were dealt with during the Covid pandemic and Black Lives Matter demonstrations.
