THE Tories have been accused of “politicising” the police with the row over pro-Palestine protests planned for Armistice Day.
Ministers have also faced criticism from former Labour shadow chancellor John McDonnell for branding the protests "hate marches”, with the MP calling Suella Braverman’s interventions “completely counter-productive”.
Speaking on the BBC’s World At One, McDonnell (below) said he would be attending a pro-Palestine march in London on Saturday and accused politicians of “interfering” with the police’s management of the event.
He said: “The Metropolitan Police and the organisers of the demonstration at the weekend are working closely together, all with the same purpose: To enable people to peacefully demonstrate and not interfere with other activities that are going on associated with the remembrance weekend. I think they’ll be successful.
“Please, I’m saying to other politicians who are interfering, don’t politicise the police in this way.
“They’re trying to do their job, we should support them and the organisers themselves have made it clear this is a march for peace and a ceasefire.”
Tensions have been growing over the planned protest on Saturday, which will take place the day before Remembrance Sunday commemoration events the following day at the Cenotaph.
The planned route by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign-organised march does not pass by the monument.
The Prime Minister met Mark Rowley (below), the head of the Metropolitan Police, on Wednesday and said before the meeting he would hold the force’s top brass “accountable” for allowing the march to go ahead.
The Met was previously reported to have had no grounds on which to ban the march.
During a visit to a school on Wednesday morning, Rishi Sunak said: “This is a decision that the Metropolitan Police Commissioner has made.
“He has said that he can ensure that we safeguard remembrance for the country this weekend as well as keep the public safe.
“Now, my job is to hold him accountable for that.
“We’ve asked the police for information on how they will ensure that this happens. I’ll be meeting the Metropolitan Police Commissioner later today to discuss this.
“More broadly, my view is that these marches are disrespectful and that’s what I’ll be discussing with the police commissioner later today.”
Downing Street has denied it is starting a “culture war” over the march, with Sunak’s spokesperson saying: “I think we’ve seen from the Met’s statement yesterday about their concern about the risk to disorder particularly from breakaway protests and … we share those concerns.”
McDonnell is one of a number of Labour MPs at odds with Keir Starmer on the Israel-Hamas war in calling for a ceasefire between the combatants.
Roughly a third of Labour MPs have publicly called for a ceasefire and there are reportedly more who are pushing the issue privately.
Starmer suffered a resignation from one of his shadow ministers on Tuesday night when Imran Hussain quit the frontbench in order to “strongly advocate for a ceasefire”.
It puts pressure on both Starmer and other shadow ministers who have publicly called for a ceasefire.
