Britain’s top policeman gave Tory loudmouth MP Lee Anderson a legal lesson today as the pair clashed over Extinction Rebellion protests.
Conservative deputy chairman Mr Anderson, who has a £100,000-a-year second job as a GB News presenter, tackled Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley over the force’s handling of environmental activists who brought parts of central London to a standstill in recent days.
Critics have blasted police for failing to break up protests and keep roads open.
But the senior officer accused the MP of not fully understanding the law on demonstrators’ rights.
Speaking at the Commons Home Affairs Select Committee, the backbench MP told Sir Mark: “We’ve seen protesters once again in Parliament Square setting up some sort of Glastonbury-on-Thames gazebo with some pretty poor artists, if my memory serves me right.
“Do you agree with the recommendations by Policy Exchange (a Tory-linked think tank) that there should be zero tolerance of these events?”
He added: “Just this morning we've seen protesters on Parliament Square, probably as you were coming into the building.
“Don’t you think it’s time you left the ivory tower and got out there on Whitehall and sorted these people out?
“People of London - the tourists, the people that work at this place, the taxpayers, bus drivers - are getting fed up of it and you’re just letting it happen.
“You’ve got the powers now to do this.”
But the country’s most senior officer hit back: “Those powers aren’t in existence yet.”
In increasingly fiery exchanges, the MP for Ashfield, Notts, claimed: “That’s not strictly true, is it? You can move these people on, they're obstructing the highway.”
Slapping down the former coal miner, the Commissioner rapped: “You’re making selective comments based on a partial understanding of the law.
“I do not want Londoners disrupted anymore than anybody else does, but the law is very clear that protest is disruptive and to a certain extent that is allowed.
“You might not like that but I have to work to the law rather than whim.”
As another MP claimed: “It’s not right,” Sir Mark told her: “It is right.”
Turning to Mr Anderson, he added: “You might want to believe that the law says that no disruption is allowed whatsoever through protest but that is not the case.”
In bitter clashes, the MP retaliated: ‘You might want to believe that you’re doing your job correctly - I don’t think you are.”
He added: “I feel like I’m wasting my time with you, to be honest.”
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