Police ‘arrested volunteers handing out rape alarms’ over coronation disruption concerns
Police have been criticised after reports that volunteers helping to keep women safe were arrested in the early hours of coronation day.
The Metropolitan Police said that at around 2am on Saturday, three people were arrested in the Soho area of central London on suspicion of conspiracy to commit public nuisance.
Among the items seized were a number of rape alarms, with the Met saying it had “received intelligence that indicated groups and individuals seeking to disrupt today’s coronation proceedings were planning to use rape alarms to disrupt the procession”.
They added: “There was particular concern from military colleagues that this would scare their horses involved in the procession and, as a result, cause significant risk to the safety of the public and the riders.”
Earlier, the Met had tweeted that the intelligence had “indicated that people were planning to throw rape alarms” to disrupt the procession.
But the three people arrested were reportedly volunteers with the Night Stars programme, which is run by Westminster City Council.
The rape alarms are handed out by the volunteers as part of their efforts to “promote women’s safety and reduce violence against women and girls”, according to the council’s website.
Councillor Aicha Less, cabinet member for communities and public protection at Westminster City Council, said: “We are deeply concerned by reports of our Night Stars volunteers being arrested overnight.
“This service has been a familiar and welcome sight in the West End for a long time, and have extensive training, so they can assist the most vulnerable on the streets late at night.
“We are working with the Metropolitan Police to establish exactly what happened, and in the meantime, we are in touch with our volunteers to ensure they are receiving the support they need.”
Council leader Adam Hug added: “We are urgently pushing the police for proper answers.
“Our Night Stars do amazing work helping vulnerable people on the streets at night.”
Westminster council’s Night Stars website – the programme is run in partnership with the Met Police.
‘One of them came out of the station in tears’
The three people arrested – a 37-year-old woman, a 59-year-old woman, and a 47-year-old man – were questioned at a south London police station.
The man was also arrested on suspicion of handling stolen goods, police said, with all three since being released on bail pending further enquiries.
Deputy Assistant Commissioner Ade Adelekan said: “The intelligence we received led us to be extremely worried about the potential risk to public safety.
“We are aware of and understand there is public concern over these arrests. However, the matter is still under investigation.”
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Mic Wright, a journalist who spoke with the three arrested people, wrote on Twitter: “The Met arrested members of the City of Westminster’s Night Safety team.
“They are volunteers.
“They were pulled last night at 2am and have been held for 14 hours.
“One of them came out of the station in tears. Police didn’t apologise.”
Jamie Klinger, co-founder of Reclaim These Streets, tweeted: “The police have done nothing to make women safer and now are arresting their own volunteers working to keep women safe.
“Yet another black eye for (Met Police commissioner) Mark Rowley.”
‘The monarch is there to defend our freedoms – now our freedoms are under attack in his name’
Anti-monarchy group Republic also said six of its members, including its chief executive Graham Smith, were arrested early on Saturday.
Mr Smith was held for almost 16 hours, tweeting after his release at about 11.30pm: “Make no mistake: there is no longer a right to peaceful protest in the UK.
“I have been told many times the monarch is there to defend our freedoms.
“Now our freedoms are under attack in his name.”
Anti-monarchy protesters
More than 50 arrests on coronation day
The arrests were among more than 50 on the day of the King’s coronation, with affray, public order breaches, and conspiracy to cause public nuisance among the alleged offences.
Met Commander Karen Findlay said: “Our first priority has been to ensure that the tens of thousands who travelled into London today, and millions more around the world, were able to enjoy a safe, secure and dignified coronation.
“We understand public concern following arrests made this morning. We police proportionately and in the context of the event. This is a once in a generation moment, and that has been a key consideration.”
The UK-US trade deal has been signed and is “done”, US President Donald Trump has said as he met Sir Keir Starmer at the G7 summit.
The US president told reporters in Canada: “We signed it, and it’s done. It’s a fair deal for both. It’ll produce a lot of jobs, a lot of income.”
Sir Keir said the document “implements” the deal to cut tariffs on cars and aerospace, describing it as a “really important agreement”.
“So this is a very good day for both of our countries – a real sign of strength,” the prime minister added.
Mr Trump added that the UK was “very well protected” against any future tariffs, saying: “You know why? Because I like them”.
However, he did not say whether levies on British steel exports to the US would be set to 0%, saying “we’re gonna let you have that information in a little while”.
Mr Trump also praised Sir Keir as a “great” prime minister, adding: “We’ve been talking about this deal for six years, and he’s done what they haven’t been able to do.”
He added: “We’re very longtime partners and allies and friends and we’ve become friends in a short period of time.
“He’s slightly more liberal than me to put it mildly… but we get along.”
Sir Keir added that “we make it work”.
As the pair exited a mountain lodge in the Canadian Rockies where the summit is being held, Mr Trump held up a physical copy of the trade agreement to show reporters.
Several leaves of paper fell from the binding, and Sir Keir quickly stooped to pick them up, saying: “A very important document.”
Sir Keir Starmer picks up paper from the UK-US trade deal after Donald Trump dropped it at the G7 summit. Pic: Reuters
The US president also appeared to mistakenly refer to a “trade agreement with the European Union” at one point as he stood alongside the British prime minister.
Mr Trump announced his “Liberation Day” tariffs on countries in April. At the time, he announced 10% “reciprocal” rates on all UK exports – as well as separately announced 25% levies on cars and steel.
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In a joint televised phone call in May, Sir Keir and Mr Trump announced the UK and US had agreed on a trade deal – but added the details were being finalised.
Ahead of the G7 summit, the prime minister said he would meet Mr Trump for “one-on-one” talks, and added the agreement “really matters for the vital sectors that are safeguarded under our deal, and we’ve got to implement that”.
Whitehall officials tried to convince Michael Gove to go to court to cover up the grooming scandal in 2011, Sky News can reveal.
Dominic Cummings, who was working for Lord Gove at the time, has told Sky News that officials in the Department for Education (DfE) wanted to help efforts by Rotherham Council to stop a national newspaper from exposing the scandal.
In an interview with Sky News, Mr Cummings said that officials wanted a “total cover-up”.
Politics latest: Grooming gangs findings unveiled
The revelation shines a light on the institutional reluctance of some key officials in central government to publicly highlight the grooming gang scandal.
In 2011, Rotherham Council approached the Department for Education asking for help following inquiries by The Times. The paper’s then chief reporter, the late Andrew Norfolk, was asking about sexual abuse and trafficking of children in Rotherham.
The council went to Lord Gove’s Department for Education for help. Officials considered the request and then recommended to Lord Gove’s office that the minister back a judicial review which might, if successful, stop The Times publishing the story.
Lord Gove rejected the request on the advice of Mr Cummings. Sources have independently confirmed Mr Cummings’ account.
Education Secretary Michael Gove in 2011. Pic: PA
Mr Cummings told Sky News: “Officials came to me in the Department of Education and said: ‘There’s this Times journalist who wants to write the story about these gangs. The local authority wants to judicially review it and stop The Times publishing the story’.
“So I went to Michael Gove and said: ‘This council is trying to actually stop this and they’re going to use judicial review. You should tell the council that far from siding with the council to stop The Times you will write to the judge and hand over a whole bunch of documents and actually blow up the council’s JR (judicial review).’
“Some officials wanted a total cover-up and were on the side of the council…
“They wanted to help the local council do the cover-up and stop The Times’ reporting, but other officials, including in the DfE private office, said this is completely outrageous and we should blow it up. Gove did, the judicial review got blown up, Norfolk stories ran.”
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Grooming gangs victim speaks out
The judicial review wanted by officials would have asked a judge to decide about the lawfulness of The Times’ publication plans and the consequences that would flow from this information entering the public domain.
A second source told Sky News that the advice from officials was to side with Rotherham Council and its attempts to stop publication of details it did not want in the public domain.
One of the motivations cited for stopping publication would be to prevent the identities of abused children entering the public domain.
There was also a fear that publication could set back the existing attempts to halt the scandal, although incidents of abuse continued for many years after these cases.
Sources suggested that there is also a natural risk aversion amongst officials to publicity of this sort.
Read more on grooming gangs:
What we do and don’t know from the data
A timeline of the scandal
Mr Cummings, who ran the Vote Leave Brexit campaign and was Boris Johnson’s right-hand man in Downing Street, has long pushed for a national inquiry into grooming gangs to expose failures at the heart of government.
He said the inquiry, announced today, “will be a total s**tshow for Whitehall because it will reveal how much Whitehall worked to try and cover up the whole thing.”
He also described Mr Johnson, with whom he has a long-standing animus, as a “moron’ for saying that money spent on inquiries into historic child sexual abuse had been “spaffed up the wall”.
Asked by Sky News political correspondent Liz Bates why he had not pushed for a public inquiry himself when he worked in Number 10 in 2019-20, Mr Cummings said Brexit and then COVID had taken precedence.
“There are a million things that I wanted to do but in 2019 we were dealing with the constitutional crisis,” he said.
The Department for Education and Rotherham Council have been approached for comment.
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