AN official UK Government review is arguing for a change in the law so that police can ban pro-Palestinian marches.
The UK Government’s independent adviser on political violence and disruption, John Woodcock - known as Lord Walney - told The Telegraph that he was recommending the change because of the impact of recent marches on the Jewish community.
Woodcock, a former Labour MP, was nominated by Boris Johnson in 2021 to lead a review which he was about to submit, but amid weeks of pro-Palestinian marches calling for a ceasefire in Gaza, he has delayed its publication.
The peer told The Telegraph there was an “explosion” in anti-semitic incidents linked to the marches and that he would be “looking at the threshold for the police to ban [them]”.
The Public Order Act makes it possible for the police to ban a procession if there is a risk of serious public disorder, but Woodcock believes it doesn’t consider the wider impact on vulnerable groups.
He said: “I think the atmosphere that’s grown in London since October 7 is showing that the current framework is not set right.
"It can’t take into account the effect that these marches are having on Jewish people, and across the UK.”
He added: “The Met Police has got to make an evidence-based decision on the probability of serious violence on the day, but it is obvious that the marches are at the very least a factor in raising tension, increasing the number of anti-semitic attacks and the culture of fear and intimidation to which Jewish people are being subjected.
“At the moment, that is not sufficient to trigger a call for a ban. So I am minded to put in a recommendation into my review, which will be handed to the Prime Minister and Home Secretary shortly, to urgently revise that framework to allow the kind of thing which is happening in this instance to be taken into account by the police.”
Lord Walney said he would submit his review before Christmas.
He went on: “The scale of threat to which [British Jews] are being subjected and perceiving as they go out and about is not something that we should ever think is a price worth paying for anything in Britain. It is in direct contravention of the British values that we seek to uphold.
“They are frightened to go into central London, they’re not using public transport and when they do they find themselves being confronted and singled out. They are being forced to hide their Jewish identity as they go round. It is an appalling situation. We ought to treat the situation for Jewish people as an emergency in this country.
“It is not enough simply to say that lots of the people who go on the marches aren’t anti-Semitic and just care about the plight of people in Gaza, therefore they should be allowed... the marches are clearly a vehicle which is contributing to this huge rise in anti-Semitism, and we would not accept that argument in other contexts.”
