RISHI Sunak has ordered a major tightening on protest laws after Central London was blighted by a day of hate.
The Prime Minister has drawn up five areas where legal loopholes need to be closed on policing – including making it easier to ban marches after Palestine activists dressed as Hamas killers and right thugs injured cops.
Trampling on statues and bus stops, as well as using flares and fireworks at protests will also be outlawed and laws on glorifying terrorists tightened.
The King and Queen led the two minutes silence at the Cenotaph without a hitch, less than 24 hours after violent chaos flared up on Whitehall and Victoria Station was invaded by anti-Israel protesters.
Cops are probing dozens of hate incidents and anti-Semitic attacks, with Michael Gove thanking the police for rescuing him from the mob.
Tonight Home Secretary Suella Braverman said “more needed to be done to combat “sick, inflammatory and, in some cases, clearly criminal chants, placards” seen yesterday.
The Sun understands the clampdown would see:
- NEW laws drawn up to stop yobs climbing on statues, scaffolding and bus stops during protests.
- THE law around fireworks, smoke bombs and flares tightened up.
- THE threshold at which cops can ban marches and protests due to safety concerns lowered.
- THE law on glorifying terrorists like Hamas is also to be tightened as cops say it is too vague to enforce currently.
Ministers are also looking at ways to restrict certain chants like “from the river to the sea” made at protests by working with organisers to set conditions for approving demonstrations.
The clampdown being looked at in Downing Street comes after a day of hate in central London and weeks of pro-Palestine protests were mired with anti-Semitic posters and chants.
A clampdown would see the law around fireworks, smoke bombs and flares tightened up[/caption]
A Downing Street source said the review must “put it beyond doubt legal wrangles” over loopholes in protest law currently.
But it will require new legislation that could be attached to the Crime Bill currently working its way through Parliament or be introduced as a new separate law.
Today the Defence Secretary urged the Met to make more arrests after 300,000 anti-Israel protesters marched through central London.
Some were holding openly racist signs and others dressed up as Hamas killers.
Grant Shapps hit out: “I’m sure there are far more arrests still to be made from the march that took place yesterday, simply because either the police were distracted here or because they weren’t going to intervene immediately.”
He said it would have been “preferable” if the march had not gone ahead, but that he respected “the right of people to demonstrate”.
“As long as it’s legal, that’s fine as well. It’s where it’s illegal that it does need to be prosecuted,” he added.
Tonight Home Secretary Suella Braverman said: “Further action is necessary.”
She added: “The sick, inflammatory and, in some cases, clearly criminal chants, placards and paraphernalia openly on display at the march mark a new low.
“Anti-Semitism and other forms of racism together with the valorising of terrorism on such a scale is deeply troubling.
She added: “This can’t go on. Week by week, the streets of London are being polluted by hate, violence, and anti-Semitism.
“Members of the public are being mobbed and intimidated. Jewish people in particular feel threatened.”
One officer received flak after posing with a child during the pro-Palestine demo in London yesterday[/caption]
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