Closing summary
That’s all from us on the UK politics blog, here is a summary of today’s headlines:
Green Party leader Zack Polanski has apologised for sharing a social media post critical of police after the Golders Green stabbings, after Mark Rowley, the Metropolitan police commissioner, posted an open letter on social media accusing Polanski of fuelling “rising tensions”.
Rowley has denied he was “intervening in politics” with his open letter and said that Polanski was “was intervening in operational policing and I need to defend my officers’ ability to do that”.
Police are assessing if nationwide marches can go ahead, as ministers are pressed on the timing and details of the prime minister’s additional measures on protests. Yesterday, Keir Starmer vowed to crack down on those “venerating the murder of Jews” at protest marches as the UK terror threat level was raised to “severe”.
Rowley said he was “concerned” about the scale of upcoming protests in London. He said police were “looking hard at what conditions and powers” they should use in respect of those events.
Alex Davies-Jones, the minister for victims, said pro-Palestine marches have been “hijacked” by people looking to sow division in the UK. “We have seen chants of death, calls for global intifada, and that is wrong,” she said.
The UK elections watchdog is considering whether to investigate an undisclosed £5m gift received by Nigel Farage before he announced his candidacy at the last general election. The move comes after the Guardian revealed this week that the Reform UK leader was given the money by the crypto billionaire Christopher Harborne.
Research has revealed that almost twice as many men as women are standing as candidates across the local, mayoral and devolved elections next week. Across all elections taking place on 7 May, a third of candidates are women and two-thirds are men, with no party achieving gender parity, according to analysis by 50:50 Parliament and Democracy Club shared exclusively with the Guardian.
Starmer calls Polanski retweet 'disgraceful'
Keir Starmer had harsh words about Zack Polanski and his decision to share a social media post critical of the police officers who arrested the suspect in the Golders Green attack.
Before Polanski apologised on Friday for the repost, Starmer said in an interview with BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “When I then see Zack Polanski come out and retweet or support a criticism of that, I think it’s disgraceful.”
The prime minister said police “have to make a decision in that split moment according to the situation as you understand it to be”.
“And for politicians to wade in, as Zack Polanski did, is disgraceful. He’s not fit to lead any political party,” Starmer said.
