Your support helps us to tell the story
Scotland Yard reportedly sought legal advice from the attorney general about Taylor Swift’s taxpayer-funded blue-light escort, amid fears the police could be held liable for any incidents.
The Metropolitan Police reportedly felt pressured after talks with home secretary Yvette Cooper and London mayor Sadiq Khan about protection for the popstar at two of her Wembley Eras Tour gigs.
Attorney general Lord Hermer was asked to step in after Scotland Yard warned giving Swift so-called VVIP protection would be a breach of the force’s protocols, according to reports.
During the talks, police argued there was no justification to offer Swift the protection because there was no specific threat against her, The Times reported.
The special protection, which provides an armed motorcycle escort, is usually only available for senior members of the government, heads of state and visiting foreign dignitaries.
But, after talks with Lord Hermer, the government’s top lawyer, Scotland Yard relented. The force is believed to had asked for advice about fears officers could be held responsible if pedestrians were injured or killed during the escort.
A source told the paper: “There were questions over the legality because the police were being asked to exercise their powers against usual protocol.”
Swift’s mother Andrea is said to have pushed for the police escort, reportedly threatening to cancel her London shows, amid safety concerns following a foiled alleged terror plot in Austria.
She reportedly negotiated a deal to provide security with Sir Keir’s Starmer’s then-chief of staff Sue Gray, according to The Sun.
Lord Hermer on Monday night said: “There is a convention that forms part of the ministerial code that prohibits me from saying whether I have advised ministers — and certainly prohibits me from saying what advice I might have given.”
But, addressing the row, former prime minister Boris Johnson said: “Sometimes I have known officers of the Special Escort Group to get so badly hurt that they can be off work for months.”
In his Daily Mail column, he said: “What they do is immensely difficult, and stressful, and dangerous. It is no wonder that — as a service provided by the government — it is intended to be wholly exceptional.”
An officer in the Special Escort Group of the Metropolitan Police, Christopher Harrison, was this month charged with causing death by dangerous driving after Helen Holland, 81, was killed having been hit by a motorcycle that was part of a police escort for the Duchess of Edinburgh.
A row over Swift’s special protection has erupted after it emerged Ms Cooper had attended one of her shows for free after being involved in talks about her police escort.
Ms Cooper attended the gig with her husband Ed Balls, a former Labour minister, who was offered tickets by the chief executive of Universal Music.
Quizzed about the row on Monday, Mr Khan said police have “operational independence” but the government speaks “regularly” with the Met about security issues.
Mr Khan said: “What I’d say to people who aren’t aware is that our police have operational independence, whether it’s policing a protest, whether it’s policing a concert, a sporting event, New Year’s Eve fireworks.
“The Government – the Home Secretary is included in that – myself as the mayor, speak regularly with the Met Police Service about a whole host of security issues and, of course, we’re going to raise the issue of security around world-breaking concerts.”
Mr Khan said that in the wake of the terror threat made against her gigs in Vienna, and the Southport incident, that “we’ve got to make sure” those attending the concerts, as well as artists, are safe.
He added: “And so I’m sure the commissioner took on board a whole host of views before he himself, as the commissioner, himself decided what was right and proper to do, and that operational independence falls with the commissioner.”
A Met Police spokesperson said: “The Met is operationally independent.
“Our decision-making is based on a thorough assessment of threat, risk and harm and the circumstances of each case.
“It is our longstanding position that we don’t comment on the specific details of protective security arrangements.”
Senior Labour politicians including Sir Keir, Mr Khan and culture secretary Lisa Nandy were also given free tickets to Eras Tour shows.
