The policing of a huge pro-Palestinian protest in London this weekend will be no different from usual, despite Rishi Sunak's plea to police chiefs to crack down on extremists - GB News can reveal.
In an address to the nation last week, the Prime Minister warned about the current situation in Britain, in the aftermath of the October 7 terrorist attacks by Hamas against Israel.
He said a line has to be drawn so that while people should be able to “march and protest with passion” in support of Gaza, demonstrators “cannot call for violent jihad call for the eradication of a state or any kind of hatred or antisemitism”.
And he rounded on senior police chiefs telling them the public expected the protests to be policed rather than simply managed.
Rishi Sunak said demonstrators “cannot call for violent jihad call for the eradication of a state or any kind of hatred or antisemitism”
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Hundreds of thousands of people from all over the country are expected to attend The Palestine Solidarity Campaign march through London this Saturday.
But despite Mr Sunak's tough words, GB News has been told that officers will be ordered not to police the protests any differently.
Officers currently use public order and anti-terror laws to police the demonstrations and sources point to the fact that there hasn’t been a change in any legislation or policy in relation to police powers.
Therefore the approach, they say, will remain consistent with where it has been up until now.
At a meeting of London's Policing Board on Tuesday, the Met Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley told members that the pro-Palestine protests were posing acute challenges for his force.
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Hundreds of thousands of people are expected to attend The Palestine Solidarity Campaign march through London this Saturday
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The organised and sporadic demonstrations have stretched resources at a time when officer numbers are under target levels.
Sir Mark added that the Met is operating in a "challenging political environment" and that the force is simulatenously labelled as "woke" and "fascist" by opposing ends of the political spectrum.
The latest revelations come as the Met has been accused of letting pro-Palestinian protesters run amok, climbing on war memorials, bringing railways stations to a standstill and even projecting anti-semitic slogans on to Big Ben.
But London's Labour Mayor Sadiq Khan has come to the defence of police officers, saying protest is “the cornerstone of our democracy” and warning that politicians should not give the impression they can tell the police what to do.
The organised and sporadic demonstrations have stretched resources at a time when officer numbers are under target levels
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“If the Prime Minister is saying to the police today which marches to allow and which marches to ban, what’s to stop him tomorrow telling the police who to arrest, who to charge, who to prosecute?
“What’s to stop politicians telling judges who to find guilty or not guilty?
“We don’t live in North Korea, we don’t live in Russia, we live in the UK.”
However, Mr Khan urged protesters not to use antisemitic language and to be “cognisant of the fact that you can say things that cause people real concern, real fear”.