Pro-Palestinian and Israeli protests cost Metropolitan Police £26.5m

Published

10 months ago

January 24, 2024

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The policing of pro-Palestinian and Israeli protests in London has cost the Metropolitan Police £26.5m so far, one of the force’s senior officers has confirmed.

Assistant commissioner Matt Twist, who is in charge of operations, said 30,000 officer shifts had been spent on the nine pro-Palestinian and three pro-Israeli demonstrations in the capital since the Hamas attacks in Israel on 7 October and the subsequent war in Gaza.

He told a Policy Exchange event on Wednesday that around 6,800 shifts had been carried out by officers coming into London to assist the Met and 4,600 rest days had been cancelled.

Politics live: PM bites back at criticism of support for Israel

Mr Twist warned of a wider impact on the force’s counter-terrorism operations since the start of the conflict, saying the Met had received 2,700 public referrals to its extremism line – a 700% increase – and there were 30 ongoing investigations.

“So what the future brings is something we are all alert to,” he added. “We need to be careful around this.”

The Met has come in for criticism over its policing of the marches, including from within government.

A number of ministers questioned if officers were being tough enough against protesters they believed were inciting hatred, while former home secretary Suella Braverman accused the force of “biased” in favour of left-wing protesters.

But Met Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley said his officers were “constantly managing tensions” and would “robustly enforce up to the line of the law”.

He also told Sky News there was a “gap” in the law when it comes to extremism, and there was “scope to be much sharper” in legislation to tackle it amid the protests.

On Wednesday, Mr Twist said the “very, very large” protests held during weekends were an “acute challenge” for the force and its officers, alongside the “chronic challenges of dealing with daily protest, activism and demonstrations every single day”.

But he insisted the force’s response to the protests had “become sharper and more decisive as the events have progressed”, adding that the “context” of the ongoing conflict was key.

The assistant commissioner also said the impact on both Jewish and Muslim communities in the city “resonates so loudly on the streets of London”, so it was important for officers to be “alert” to it.

“That is why we are making so much effort and putting in so much time into engaging with local communities,” added the assistant commissioner.

“[The Met has made] over 16,000 visits to synagogues, mosques and schools as well [built on] as strategic partnerships we have with some of the senior members of those communities right across the capital.”

Politics

NY Supreme Court allows Greenidge to keep mining, but challenges remain

Published

2 hours ago

November 15, 2024

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NY Supreme Court allows Greenidge to keep mining, but challenges remain

The state Department of Environmental Conservation botched the permitting process, but it still gets a do-over.

Politics

UK economy grows by 0.1% between July and September – slower than expected

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2 hours ago

November 15, 2024

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UK economy grows by 0.1% between July and September - slower than expected

The UK economy grew by 0.1% between July and September, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

However, despite the small positive GDP growth recorded in the third quarter, the economy shrank by 0.1% in September, dragging down overall growth for the three month period.

The growth was also slower than what had been expected by experts and a drop from the 0.5% growth between April and June, the ONS said.

Economists polled by Reuters and the Bank of England had forecast an expansion of 0.2%, slowing from the rapid growth seen over the first half of 2024 when the economy was rebounding from last year’s shallow recession.

And the metric that Labour has said it is most focused on – the GDP per capita, or the economic output divided by the number of people in the country – also fell by 0.1%.

Reacting to the figures, Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves said: “Am I satisfied with the numbers published today? Of course not. I want growth to be stronger, to come sooner, and also to be felt by families right across the country.”

“It’s why in my Mansion House speech last night, I announced some of the biggest reforms of our pension system in a generation to unlock long term patient capital, up to £80bn to help invest in small businesses and scale up businesses and in the infrastructure needs,” Ms Reeves later told Sky News in an interview.

“We’re four months into this government. There’s a lot more to do to turn around the growth performance of the last decade or so.”

New economy data tests chancellor’s growth plan

The sluggish services sector – which makes up the bulk of the British economy – was a particular drag on growth over the past three months. It expanded by 0.1%, cancelling out the 0.8% growth in the construction sector.

The UK’s GDP for the most recent quarter is lower than the 0.7% growth in the US and 0.4% in the Eurozone.

The figures have pushed the UK towards the bottom of the G7 growth table for the third quarter of the year.

It was expected to meet the same 0.2% growth figures reported in Germany and Japan – but fell below that after a slow September.

The pound remained stable following the news, hovering around $1.267. The FTSE 100, meanwhile, opened the day down by 0.4%.

The Bank of England last week predicted that Ms Reeves’s first budget as chancellor will increase inflation by up to half a percentage point over the next two years, contributing to a slower decline in interest rates than previously thought.

Announcing a widely anticipated 0.25 percentage point cut in the base rate to 4.75%, the Bank’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) forecast that inflation will return “sustainably” to its target of 2% in the first half of 2027, a year later than at its last meeting.

The Bank’s quarterly report found Ms Reeves’s £70bn package of tax and borrowing measures will place upward pressure on prices, as well as delivering a three-quarter point increase to GDP next year.