London Gaza rally: Braverman accuses Met of bias over Gaza marches

Home Secretary Suella Braverman has accused the Metropolitan Police of “playing favourites” over its handling of pro-Palestinian protests.

Writing in The Times, she said right-wing protests that became aggressive were often stopped, while “pro-Palestinian mobs” were permitted.

The Met has said there are no grounds to ban a march set to take place amid remembrance commemorations on Saturday.

Mrs Braverman’s article has drawn widespread criticism.

For Labour, shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper described it as a “dangerous attempt to undermine respect for police”, while London mayor Sadiq Khan said it was “irresponsible”.

One senior Conservative figure told the BBC’s Chris Mason the comments were “unhinged”.

London’s police force has faced increasing pressure to prevent Saturday’s march from going ahead, but Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley has said it may only be stopped if there is a threat of serious disorder, and that the “very high threshold” has not been reached.

Mrs Braverman said the pro-Palestinian marches, which began last month amid the siege of Gaza, had been “problematic” because of “violence around the fringes” as well as “highly offensive” chants, posters and stickers.

“Unfortunately, there is a perception that senior police officers play favourites when it comes to protesters,” she said.

“Right-wing and nationalist protesters who engage in aggression are rightly met with a stern response yet pro-Palestinian mobs displaying almost identical behaviour are largely ignored, even when clearly breaking the law.”

She added that she believed the marches were not “merely a cry for help for Gaza”, but an “assertion of primacy by certain groups – particularly Islamists – of the kind we are more used to seeing in Northern Ireland”.

A source close to the home secretary told the BBC the comment was a reference to the activities of “dissident republicans”.

Responding to the article, one Conservative Party source called the comparison with Northern Ireland “wholly offensive and ignorant”.

In a statement posted on social media, Mrs Cooper accused Mrs Braverman of trying to “rip up [the] operational independence” of the police and “inflame community tensions”.

“She’s deliberately seeking to stir up political division around Remembrance Day, a moment when the whole country can come together to pay our respects for sacrifices of the past,” she said.

“No other Home Secretary of any party would ever do this.”

Mr Khan said the article was “inaccurate, inflammatory & irresponsible” and called on Mrs Braverman to “support the police to keep everyone safe at this delicate time, not make their job harder”.

Speaking to BBC Newsnight, Lord Greenhalgh, who served as deputy mayor for policing and crime during Boris Johnson’s time as London mayor, said Mrs Braverman had crossed a line by speaking publicly.

“Any relationship where you’re holding a police service and the Met to account – that means supporting and challenging the Met – that’s got to be done on the basis of trust,” he said.

“I just don’t think that’s a reasonable way for a home secretary to behave.”

Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesperson Alistair Carmichael accused Mrs Braverman of “running a Conservative party leadership campaign, not the Home Office”.

“Instead of working with the police, she is doing everything in her power to make their already challenging jobs harder,” he said.

Additional reporting by Claire Brennan and Eimear Flanagan, BBC News.