UK government accuses police of pro-Palestinian bias over marches.

The British government accused the London police chief of softening their stance toward left-wing causes during a pro-Palestinian march this past weekend, which sparked an intensified argument between the two departments on Thursday.

The government and police are at odds over plans for a rally on Saturday, Armistice Day, in London. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has threatened to make the police force responsible for any unrest after they said there was no justification to forbid it.

Since the Islamist group Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, London has been the site of some of the largest rallies in Europe. Tens of thousands of protestors come there every weekend to demand a stop to Israel’s retaliatory bombing of Gaza.

When official Remembrance Sunday ceremonies take place in central London on November 12, there are no preparations for protests, according to police. Still, they anticipate a sizable rally on Saturday, Nov. 11, the anniversary of the end of World War One.

Although police commissioner Mark Rowley stated that any restriction would require knowledge of a significant disruption danger and that prohibitions of this kind had not been implemented in ten years, Sunak nevertheless branded the march disrespectful.

“Hate marches” are what Interior Minister Suella Braverman has dubbed the protests. She described it as a show of power and a “assertion of primacy by certain groups — particularly Islamists” in a piece that appeared in The Times on Thursday.

“Unfortunately, there is a perception that senior police officers play favourites when it comes to protesters,” she stated. “During COVID, why was it that lockdown objectors were given no quarter by public order police yet Black Lives Matters demonstrators were enabled, allowed to break rules, and even greeted with officers taking the knee?”

Despite the long-standing British traditions of freedom of speech and assembly, Braverman, viewed as a potential future leader of the ruling Conservative Party, stated that there was “a debate to be had” about whether some public displays were so unpleasant that they needed to be outlawed.

Political criticism, according to Neil Basu, a former senior officer in London’s Met Police, may make counterprotesters more likely to appear, raising the possibility of violence.

“It’s somewhat ironic that all of this rhetoric about this march might actually be increasing the intelligence case, to have it banned,” he stated on LBC Radio.

Since the assault on October 7, almost 200 individuals have been detained in Britain on suspicion of hate crimes, which include public order offenses and antisemitic and Islamophobic crimes, many of which were related to protests and had a racially charged component.