Picking a fight with the UK’s top cop is probably not a sensible move

Published

2 years ago

November 9, 2023

admin

Rishi Sunak has essentially told Met Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley that if there’s violence at the pro-Palestine march in London on Saturday, it’s his fault.

But it’s a petulant response to Sir Mark’s defiance in the face of the enormous pressure from the PM and other ministers for the Armistice Day march to be banned.

Picking a fight with the UK’s top cop is probably not the most sensible move for a prime minister or home secretary – especially for a Conservative.

Remember the Tories’ claim to be the party of law and order?

Politics live: Johnson’s team ‘brutal and useless’, inquiry hears

The only targets for attack that might have been more unwise would be the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Pope, Harry Kane, David Beckham or a national treasure like Joanna Lumley.

Having said that, former England football manager Glenn Hoddle still claims Tony Blair hounded him out in 1999 after he said the disabled were being punished for sins committed in a previous life.

But once Suella Braverman had made her incendiary “hate marches” attack on pro-ceasefire protesters last week, the battlelines were drawn and the Tories declared war on Sir Mark.

The climax in this power struggle came when Mr Sunak summoned the commissioner to Downing Street on Wednesday in the hope – no doubt – of persuading him to back down and veto the march.

But he failed. Sir Mark stood his ground, and the PM – along with his fiercely combative home secretary – were forced into an embarrassing retreat.

The march goes ahead, and Mr Sunak has been outmanoeuvred.

Stepping back from the current dispute for a moment, what Met commissioner is going to admit to a prime minister that he or she can’t police a big demo – however large – and protect the public?

Supporters of the demands for a ceasefire have argued that – despite some of the offensive slogans and allegations of intimidation – there are more arrests at Premier League football matches than these marches.

That’s highly debatable. But the organisers of the Armistice Day march did help Sir Mark’s defiant stand by pledging to stay away from the Cenotaph in Whitehall and wait nearly two hours until after the two-minute silence before they begin.

Even before the Downing Street showdown, Mr Sunak appeared to concede that he was losing the battle with Sir Mark.

“This is a decision that the Metropolitan Police commissioner has made,” said the PM.

“He has said that he can ensure that we safeguard remembrance for the country this weekend as well as keep the public safe.”

Then the prime minister declared: “Now, my job is to hold him accountable for that.”

That sounded very much like a threat. And no doubt if there is serious violence on Saturday, Mr Sunak – and his controversial home secretary – will gloat: “Told you so!”

In a tetchy statement admitting defeat after the Downing Street meeting, Mr Sunak talked rather sheepishly about the freedom of the right to protest peacefully.

Yet at the same time, he repeated his claim that the protest was disrespectful and offensive to the memory of Britain’s war heroes.

And then, in a bizarre comment, he said the commissioner had committed to keep the Met’s “posture” under constant review based on the latest intelligence about the nature of the protests.

Posture? That’s a loaded word. Was Mr Sunak suggesting Sir Mark had been posturing in his stand-off with the government?

Despite all his talk about policing of the march being an operational matter for the Met, if the PM is indeed guilty of misjudgement in his strategy, who is to blame?

Many MPs will point the figure at his inflammatory home secretary, accused by Sir Keir Starmer in the King’s Speech debate this week of pursuing a “divisive brand of politics … as a platform for her own ambitions”.

That was after Ms Braverman’s “lifestyle choice” slur on the homeless sleeping in tents in town centres, which came just days after her “hate marches” attack.

Plenty of Tory MPs want Mr Sunak to sack his home secretary. Some even believe she’s goading him into sack her so she can launch a Tory leadership bid.

Whatever her motives, if she’s responsible for Mr Sunak’s ill-judged attacks on Sir Mark and his force, she’s done the PM no favours.

The Met chief will obviously be desperately hoping there isn’t serious trouble at Saturday’s march. Because he knows Mr Sunak – and Ms Braverman – will blame him and say it’s his fault.

UK

Starmer’s plan to recognise Palestinian state labelled ‘appeasement towards jihadist terrorists’ by Netanyahu

Published

6 hours ago

July 30, 2025

admin

Starmer's plan to recognise Palestinian state labelled 'appeasement towards jihadist terrorists' by Netanyahu

Sir Keir Starmer’s plan to recognise Palestine as a state has been attacked as “appeasement towards jihadist terrorists” by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The prime minister said the UK will recognise a Palestinian state by September unless Israel takes “substantive steps” to end the situation in Gaza, Israel agrees to a ceasefire, commits to a long-term sustainable peace, allows the UN to restart aid supplies and does not annexe the West Bank.

About 250 MPs from all parties – half of them Labour – had signed a letter last week calling for Sir Keir to immediately recognise a Palestinian state.

Politics latest: PM’s Palestine plan labelled ‘absurd’

Sir Keir said that by giving Israel a deadline of 9 September UN meeting, he hoped this would play a part “in changing the conditions on the ground, and making sure aid gets into making sure that there is hope of a two-state solution for the future”.

But Mr Netanyahu condemned the plan, saying Sir Keir “rewards Hamas’s monstrous terrorism and punishes its victims”.

“A jihadist state on Israel’s border today will threaten Britain tomorrow,” he wrote on X.

“Appeasement towards jihadist terrorists always fails. It will fail you too. It will not happen.”

The Israelis also accused Sir Keir of pandering to his MPs and France, after Emmanuel Macron committed to recognising a Palestinian state last week, and harming efforts to release Israeli hostages.

Lib Dems and Greens: ‘Bargaining chip’

Sir Keir also faced accusations of using Palestinian state recognition as a “bargaining chip” by both the Lib Dems and the Green Party.

Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey said a Palestinian state should have been recognised “months ago” and “far greater action” is needed to stop the humanitarian disaster in Gaza.

Green Party foreign affairs spokesperson Ellie Chowns, who wants immediate state recognition, said it was a “cynical political gesture”.

Humza Yousaf, Scotland’s former SNP first minister, who revealed a family member was killed in Gaza days ago, told Sky News statehood “shouldn’t be dependent” upon the conditions Sir Keir has set for Israel, but is the “inalienable right” of the Palestinian people.

The British Palestinian Committee, representing Palestinian interests in the UK, described conditions as “absurd and performative”.

UK Jewish groups seek clarity

The Board of Deputies of British Jews, the UK’s largest Jewish organisation, said it was “seeking urgent clarification” that the UK will not recognise Palestine as a state if Israeli hostages remain in Hamas captivity, or if Hamas keeps rejecting a ceasefire deal.

The Labour Friends of Israel group said it has “shared goals” with the government but state recognition “will be a merely symbolic act unless the UK uses its influence to establish the principles of a meaningful pathway to a Palestinian state”.

Sarah Champion, Labour MP and chair of the international development committee, who started the MP letter calling for state recognition, said she was “delighted and relieved”.

However, she added: “I’m troubled our recognition appears conditional on Israel’s actions.”

When Foreign Secretary David Lammy announced the plan at a UN meeting, he received applause.

Not many other Labour MPs commented.

Tories accuse Starmer of appeasing MPs

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch accused Sir Keir of being more focused on a “political problem for the Labour Party” than other issues facing the UK.

“Recognising a Palestinian state won’t bring the hostages home, won’t end the war and won’t get aid into Gaza,” she posted on X.

“This is political posturing at its very worst.”

Tory shadow foreign secretary Priti Patel said the announcement was “to appease his backbenchers” as “he knows that promises to recognise Palestine will not secure lasting peace”.

Trump did not discuss statehood with Starmer

Donald Trump said he and Sir Keir “never did discuss” the PM’s plan to recognise a Palestinian state during their meetings in Scotland the day before.

However, Tammy Bruce, spokeswoman for the US state department, said Sir Keir’s plan is a “slap in the face for the victims of October 7”, which “rewards Hamas”, the Telegraph reported.

UK

Southport remembers ‘three little angels’ one years on from attack

Published

9 hours ago

July 29, 2025

admin

Southport remembers 'three little angels' one years on from attack

At St Marie’s Catholic Church in Southport, small photos of Bebe King, Elsie Dot Stancombe and Alice da Silva Aguiar stood on the altar. Candles burned next to them.

During lunchtime mass, Father John Heneghan, who gave Alice her first communion and then conducted her funeral, spoke quietly of the “three little angels” lost a year ago.

A town and a community, in small and quiet ways, remembered a horror that still haunts them.

St Marie’s was one of the locations chosen for the people of Southport to come and reflect, pray or light a candle in memory of the awful events of 29 July last year.

Throughout the day, a handful of people have paused for a moment at community centres, libraries and churches.

The town had opted for very little outward show of commemoration.

After discussions, including with the families of the victims, they asked for people to instead donate to local causes, including the charities set up by those families themselves – Elsie’s Story, Bebe’s Hive and Alice’s WonderDance.

They requested no flowers at the scene of the attack or the schools the girls attended.

“Let us continue to honour the lives of Alice, Bebe and Elsie,” the leader and chair of Sefton Council said in a letter to the community, “not only through remembrance but by holding onto the values they embodied – joy, creativity, kindness, and love.”

At 3pm, people stopped to observe the three-minute silence in the town centre.

A few wiped away tears before spontaneous applause broke out.

In Southport’s Town Hall Gardens, which was the focal point of the public mourning a year ago, people again came to place flowers, toys and cards in memory of the victims.

Stones bearing messages of support to the families were also placed there.

“God bless to you three little angels,” read one card.

UK

Resident doctors threaten further strikes as government rules out additional pay hikes

Published

9 hours ago

July 29, 2025

admin

Resident doctors threaten further strikes as government rules out additional pay hikes

Resident doctors are not ruling out further strike action as their current walkout comes to an end, with some demands still unmet.

The latest strike began on Friday amid an ongoing row over pay and is expected to last until 7am on Wednesday.

Hospital leaders have urged the British Medical Association (BMA) and the government to end the strikes, which caused widespread disruptions throughout the NHS in England.

The BMA’s Resident Doctors Committee (RDC) says it is ready for further talks with the government but has yet to be contacted by Health Secretary Wes Streeting.

Dozens of resident doctors, previously called junior doctors, took part in a picket line on Tuesday at King George Hospital in Ilford, a facility serving the constituents of the health secretary.

“Unfortunately, we haven’t heard from him yet. That doesn’t mean that he’s not going to call us tomorrow – our door is always open,” said Dr Melissa Ryan, who co-chairs the committee alongside Dr Ross Nieuwoudt.

Dr Nieuwoudt said: “There does not need to be a single other day of industrial action at all.

“All Wes Streeting needs to do is come to us now and talk to us now, because that’s what doctors want and that’s what patients need.”

The union has also launched a related dispute with the government over limited training spots, as this year, over 30,000 resident doctors competed for only 10,000 specialty places.

A recent poll of 4,400 doctors found that 52% finishing their second training year lack confirmed employment for August.

Dr Layla McCay, director of policy at NHS Confederation, said: “Resident doctors have recently had a very substantial increase in their pay and the government has been pretty clear that at the moment, there isn’t more money to be negotiated.”

Dr McCay said the government “is keen” to discuss non-pay issues, such as workforce conditions.

“I think that the hope of all healthcare leaders is that the BMA will get around the table with the government and figure out a solution to this, because what absolutely nobody wants to see is any further cases of industrial action after this one.”

Streeting has said the union can’t “hold the country to ransom” following a 28.9% pay increase over the past three years, the highest in the public sector.

The BMA has said pay for resident doctors has declined by a fifth since 2008, once inflation is taken into account, despite this uplift.

Meanwhile, health workers represented by the GMB and Unite unions have also turned down a government offer, raising the likelihood of additional industrial action within the NHS.

Nurses are also expected to turn down the pay deal later this week.

The Royal College of Nursing, which represents hundreds of thousands of nurses across the NHS in England, is balloting its members on the 3.6% pay award offered for 2025/26 in England.

A recent YouGov poll found that public opinion in Britain is divided over nurses striking for better pay. Among 4,300 adults surveyed, 19% “strongly support” nurse strikes, while 28% offer some support. In contrast, 23% “strongly oppose” the strikes, and 20% “somewhat oppose” them.