Rishi Sunak has been accused of “silly puffed-up posturing” by senior Tories after being forced to concede at the 11th hour that a pro-Palestine march planned for Armistice Day will go ahead.
For days ministers have insisted that the march through central London should not proceed out of respect for commemorations being held on 11 November.
In a thinly veiled attack on the Met police commissioner, Sir Mark Rowley, over his decision not to ban the march, the home secretary, Suella Braverman, accused the police of taking a tougher approach to rightwing groups than to “pro-Palestinian mobs displaying almost identical behaviour” in an article on Wednesday.
“It may be that senior officers are more concerned with how much flak they are likely to get than whether this perceived unfairness alienates the majority,” Braverman wrote in the Times. “The government has a duty to take a broader view.”
The prime minister had described the planned protests as “disrespectful” earlier on Wednesday, but had been forced to concede after a meeting with Rowley that those who wished to take to the streets had a “right to peacefully protest”.
In a statement issued after a hastily arranged meeting with the police chief on Wednesday afternoon, Sunak sought to portray his acceptance of the Met chief’s decision as a principled one.
He said: “This weekend people around the UK will come together in quiet reflection to remember those who made the ultimate sacrifice for this country. It is not hyperbole to say that we are the beneficiaries of an inheritance born of their sacrifice.
“It is because that sacrifice is so immense that Saturday’s planned protest is not just disrespectful but offends our heartfelt gratitude to the memory of those who gave so much so that we may live in freedom and peace today.
“But part of that freedom is the right to peacefully protest. And the test of that freedom is whether our commitment to it can survive the discomfort and frustration of those who seek to use it, even if we disagree with them. We will meet that test and remain true to our principles.”
The former Conservative minister Nicholas Soames said the prime minister should never have interfered, and accused Sunak of “playing politics” with hard-won freedoms.
Lord Soames, who is Winston Churchill’s grandson, said: “Whether this march went ahead was always an operational matter, and was not a decision for either the prime minister or the home secretary. This was a decision for the Met commissioner, who knows how to do his job.
“I hope we can move on and I hope that everyone behaves properly on the day, which is a solemn and important occasion for many people,” he said.
A second former minister told the Guardian: “Puffed up posturing followed by a climbdown makes Rishi Sunak look silly. And the only reason he was endorsed as PM was because MPs thought he would stop making the party a laughing stock following two chaotic PMs. I despair.”
Another senior Tory said the government’s climbdown was a “complete mess”. “It demonstrates what happens when the government attempts to tell the police what do based on political posturing and ignorance. They need to stop undermining the professionalism of our police.”
Rowley had been forced to cancel an appearance at another event after being summoned to Downing Street on Wednesday afternoon.
Sunak had told reporters that he would hold Rowley “accountable” for his decision but subsequently said he had been reassured that events over the weekend would not be disrupted.
The protest is scheduled to start at 12.45pm at Marble Arch and end at the US embassy in south-west London, about two miles from the Cenotaph, where formal remembrance events will be held the next day.
Sunak said: “This afternoon I asked the Metropolitan police commissioner, Sir Mark Rowley, to come to Downing Street and provide reassurances that the police are taking every step necessary to safeguard remembrance services, provide reassurance to those who wish to pay their respects across the country and keep the public safe from disorder this weekend.
“It’s welcome that the police have confirmed that the march will be away from the Cenotaph and they will ensure that the timings do not conflict with any remembrance events. There remains the risk of those who seek to divide society using this weekend as a platform to do so.
“That is what I discussed with the Metropolitan police commissioner in our meeting. The commissioner has committed to keep the Met police’s posture under constant review based on the latest intelligence about the nature of the protests.”
Steve Hartshorn, the chair of the Police Federation, said politicians should keep out of operational matters.
“I would like the politics to be kept out of policing and allow us to do the job we are empowered to do, to uphold the laws we have, to the best of our ability,” Hartshorn said. “The commissioner and his team need to be allowed to do their job without political interference. It is ultimately police officers who become the focal point if tensions are inflamed.
“There is potential that government rhetoric could inflame tensions. Anyone is entitled to their view, but policing must be allowed to get on with its job, without political commentary.”
A former head of counter-terrorism, Neil Basu, said the government criticism of Rowley’s position had put the country’s top police officer in an “absolutely outrageous position”.
Basu, who is a friend of Rowley’s, told LBC Radio: “I think what you’re witnessing is the end of operational independence of policing. This is the start of it. I say that, that strongly.”
Labour’s leader, Keir Starmer, accused Sunak of “cowardice” for “picking a fight” with the police.
The organiser of the sole Armistice Day event at the Cenotaph in central London told the Guardian that he believed the pro-Palestine march should be allowed to go ahead.
Richard Hughes, from the Western Front Association, a charity that holds a commemoration on 11 November for the casualties of the first world war, said the organisation believed in “freedom of speech”.
“I think a lot of people are trying to whip this up,” said Hughes, the association’s legal trustee, who is also responsible for organising the annual commemoration. “The police are not going to let anyone near the Cenotaph. We are a democratic organisation that commemorates those who fought for democracy, so free speech is important.”
People attending pro-Palestine marches in recent weeks have been calling for a ceasefire in the war that broke out last month after Hamas killed 1,400 people, mainly civilians, in Israel and took about 240 hostages.
Over 10,000 of civilians in Gaza, many of them children, have been killed in the Israeli military operation since, according to Gaza’s health authority, which is run by Hamas.
