Far-right Ukip supporters will be stopped from marching through Tower Hamlets for fear of serious violence, including from local people, Scotland Yard has said.
The Metropolitan police said it was not a ban, as the march on 31 January calling for mass deportations could take place in another part of London.
The remarks come after the row over the banning of Maccabi Tel Aviv fans from a football game in Birmingham in November, amid fears of violence if they attended the game.
Tower Hamlets, in east London, has a high Bangladeshi population, and has a long history of suffering racist attacks and resisting it, sometimes through violence.
The Met deputy assistant commissioner James Harman said public order laws allowed police to impose conditions if they feared a risk of serious disorder: “It would be reckless to allow an event to go ahead when we understand there’s a risk of serious violence to members of the community and to our officers, and for that reason, we have made the decision to impose conditions.
“I understand some of the criticism that may be levelled. I understand some of the perceptions people may have or may choose to have, but we have to be clear-eyed about our role, which is about protecting communities … It is an assessment of safety and we are intervening to ensure safety.”
Harman added the biggest risk, according to the Met’s assessment, was the reaction of people in Tower Hamlets, which is one of a multiplicity of factors police commanders have taken into account in their decision ordering Ukip away from the area. “Largely it is the reaction of the local community, or members of that local community [that] may lead to disorder,” he said.
“It may be the conduct of those attending the protest. It is about the nature of the protest. It is about the location of the protest. It is about what communities have told us about their fears. It is about what we have seen take place previously, and what we understand to be the risk of Ukip going to Tower Hamlets to conduct the protest they wish to conduct.”
Last week Craig Guildford stepped down as West Midland police’s chief constable after a damning report into his banning of Israeli football fans, amid claims the force had given into extremist threats if Maccabi fans had travelled to Birmingham. Privately senior officers involved in the West Midlands force’s decision believed the ban had stopped serious violence and disorder, but others believe the basis was flawed.
Harman said the Ukip march was different as it would be allowed if an alternative route could be found: “I won’t draw a comparison with Maccabi, but it’s not a ban, because on 31 January, Ukip may very well be able to undertake their protest, but to do so at a location which we do not feel, we do not assess, we do not believe, to pose a risk of serious disorder and serious violence.”
Anyone ignoring the order and believed to be part of the Ukip protest would be arrested, Harman said, adding police had made the same decision ordering Ukip away from a planned parade through Tower Hamlets in October.
Harman, who leads for the Met on public order and protests, said they had intensified in complexity and frequency across a number of causes, from pro-Palestinian marches to demonstrations against the regime in Iran. The Met in two years has spent £76m policing 884 protests, Harman said.
In 2011, the then home secretary, Theresa May, banned an English Defence League march planned to go through Tower Hamlets over fears of violence.
