The UK government’s adviser on political violence and disruption has said he will recommend giving police stronger powers to prevent demonstrations that intimidate the Jewish community after weeks of successive, largely peaceful pro-Palestinian marches.
Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, the independent peer and former Labour MP John Woodcock said: “The problem you have seen over recent weeks is the police grappling with the public order regulations and deciding in this last week, for example, that they didn’t think there was sufficient probability of serious public disorder to be able to ban the march.
“I think that seems to be a fine decision and we should probably dig more into whether they are making the right call.
“What the police are unable to take into account is the explosion of antisemitism that is being recorded in the capital and across the UK – the Community Security Trust has talked about a more than 10-fold increase in antisemitic attacks, in fear, in intimidation, that has happened since October 7.
“The marches are clearly a factor in that but that cumulative buildup of threat to a community cannot currently easily, neatly, be taken into account by police in making a decision which they know is going to be legally challenged by protesters, organisers, who are determined that these should go ahead.
“So, I’m strongly minded, in looking at the situation over the last month, to recommend a change to enable the police to take into account those community factors more easily.”
The Muslim community has also reported an increase in hate crimes. On Thursday, the monitoring group Tell MAMA said there had been a 600% increase in Islamophobic incidents since 7 October.
Asked whether he wanted to see pro-Palestinian marches stopped until a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war was negotiated, Woodcock told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “This is difficult because the right for people to protest is really important and there are clearly very strong feelings on this matter.
“However, I think if you look at the scale of intimidation which Jewish people in London and across the UK are feeling, we should be treating this as a national emergency.”
On Saturday, hundreds of thousands of people peacefully marched through central London to protest against Israel’s continued bombardment of Gaza. Far-right counterprotesters clashed with police near the Cenotaph in Whitehall before the march began. The Met said they made 126 arrests, the majority of whom were far-right protesters.
The armed forces minister, James Heappey, has said “clearly the law needs to be strengthened to avoid” people taking part in protests where “hateful” messages are displayed or chanted.
Asked by Sky News about a report in the Sun detailing the prime minister’s apparent plans to crack down on protests that “glorify terrorists”, Heappey said he did not know the detail because this was a leak but noted that it was a matter for the police who were “operationally independent”.
He added: “The government needs to reflect on whether the law of the day is sufficient to meet the complexity or the circumstances of various protests, and so I think it is entirely right that the government would be looking at whether or not there are things that need to be done legislatively in order to give the police greater powers to police those protests better.”
