Over 1,000 extra police officers from every force in the UK are being sent to London this weekend amid growing fears of trouble between right-wing extremists and a mass pro-Palestinian protest march through the capital.
The huge number will put a massive strain on UK forces with a number of major marches and counter protests set to be staged in cities including Manchester, Leeds, Birmingham, Glasgow, Liverpool and Edinburgh.
The Daily Express understands all leave requests have been cancelled to enable forces to meet the massive manpower requirement needed to ensure they can keep the public safe.
Almost 800 additional officers will join around 1,000 Met officers in the capital on Sunday with nearly 300 deployed on Sunday.
Yesterday the chief officers leading the national response to the conflict admitted the protests are likely to continue for “some months” but admitted this weekend promises to be the most challenging as events coincide with Armistice Day and Remembrance Sunday.
But in what appeared a thinly veiled attack on Home Secretary Suella Braverman’s critical comments on police favouring left-wing groups, one of the UK’s most senior police officers defended force chiefs’ rights to make independent operational decisions.
Gavin Stephens, who is chairman of the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC), insisted despite Ms Braverman’s intervention political views could not be allowed to influence their decision making.
He said: “In policing we need the space to make difficult operational decisions in an independent manner.
“That space is set out very clearly in law in the Policing Protocol Order which was refreshed earlier this year. The decisions that we take are not easy ones, but we do so impartially, without fear or favour, and in line with both the law and our authorised professional practice.”
The senior officer said he considers it one of his civic responsibilities not to stoke up community tensions insisting “language” and “actions in defusing tensions” are important.
He added: “In everything that we do, whether that’s the policing plans that we put in place, the breadth of the community engagement activity… the conversations that we have with individuals or community groups, all of that should be directed towards keeping people safe and feeling safe, and how we choose to describe that activity in the public arena can set the context in which we police.
Chief Constable Chris Haward, who is leading the national police response to the renewed conflict in Gaza, pointed out that even if a march were banned, the right for protesters to gather in one location would remain.
“Even if you ban the march, you cannot ban the assembly,” he said.
“You will still expect to have 100,000 people, maybe more, turning up who will then be in a static position.”
He added: “The threshold (for a ban) is extremely high. It is about serious violence, and not about the words that might be chanted.”
The NPCC stressed demonstrations outside London have largely been peaceful with just eight arrests made at 67 protests between November 2 and 5.
According to the Met, 57 people have been arrested for public order offences including violence during protests in the English capital since the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7.
But Mr Haward said a rise in hate crime amid the renewed conflict in the region was more intense than previous spikes in 2014 and 2021.
The biggest surge has been in London, with the Met currently accounting for more than 70% of hate crime nationally, compared to normal levels of around a quarter.
Mr Haward said any counter-protests would be facilitated “without bias” as long as they are peaceful, but issued stern warnings that hate crime or law-breaking during demonstrations would not be tolerated.
He said: “When we are alerted to crimes, particularly those which are inflammatory and fuelled by hate, we will take action either making the arrests at the time or conducting thorough investigations afterwards to bring offenders to justice.”
