While leaving the Cabinet Office, Sir Mark Rowley was asked about two-tier policing, a topic of much interest since a weekend of riots across the UK.
Instead of responding, the Met Police Commissioner appeared to grab the top of the journalist’s microphone, throwing it to the ground, drawing criticism for not responding professionally to the query.
A Met Police spokesperson said the commissioner "was in a hurry to return to New Scotland Yard to take action on the agreed next steps”.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has also been asked about two-tier policing, highlighting the growing focus on the potential use of such a policy.
But what actually is two-tier policing? Here’s a closer look at what it means in practice.
What is two-tier policing?
Two-tier policing is a term used to describe the idea that some behaviour, in this instance protests and demonstrations, are dealt with more harshly than others.
Some have claimed that the riots across the UK in the past few days have been met with harsher police measures than others.
In a statement calling for Parliament to be called back from its summer recess, Reform UK leader Nigel Farage stated that the “impression of two-tier policing” had “become widespread”.
However, speaking after an emergency Cobra meeting held to discuss the pockets of unrest throughout the country, Sir Keir refuted the idea of two-tier policing.
“There is no two-tier policing,” he said. “There is policing without fear or favour – exactly as it should be, exactly what I would expect and require. So that is a non-issue.”
In addition, the Prime Minister’s official spokesman told reporters: “The job of the police is to keep everyone safe, to tackle violence and disorder no matter the origination.”
Sir Keir’s words have been echoed by Dame Priti Patel, a former Conservative home secretary, speaking on Times Radio: “There is a clear difference between effectively blocking streets or roads being closed, to burning down libraries, hotels, food banks and attacking places of worships.
“What we have seen is thuggery, violence, racism,” she added. “Those kinds of comments are simply not relevant right now. That is not correct, it is not correct.”
Have UK police previously been accused of two-tier policing?
Claims of two-tier policing were also levelled at the police during protests after the October 7 attacks by Hamas on the Gaza Strip, with claims that those protesting in favour of Palestinians in Gaza and in favour of Israel were treated differently by police across the country.
However, it’s not only a recent phenomenon. The 1999 Macpherson Report, now 25 years past, investigated the murder of Stephen Lawrence and found that the killing had been “marred by a combination of professional incompetence, institutional racism and a failure of leadership”.
Claims of institutional racism in the police system also then sparked claims of two-tier policing against Black people, namely that Black people coming into contact with the police were treated more harshly.
