NEWS STORY : Home Secretary Suella Braverman Launches Attack on Police Over Marches
STORY
Suella Braverman, the Home Secretary, has launched an attack on the policing of rallies which has led to calls for his resignation from the Labour Party. Writing in the Times newspaper, Braverman said:
“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? Rightwing and nationalist protesters who engage in aggression are rightly met with a stern response yet pro-Palestinian mobs displaying almost identical behaviour are largely ignored, even when clearly breaking the law? I have spoken to serving and former police officers who have noted this double standard.
Football fans are even more vocal about the tough way they are policed as compared to politically connected minority groups who are favoured by the left. It may be that senior officers are more concerned with how much flak they are likely to get than whether this perceived unfairness alienates the majority. The government has a duty to take a broader view.”
Yvette Cooper, the Shadow Home Secretary, posted on Twitter:
“Suella Braverman is out of control. Her article tonight is a highly irresponsible, dangerous attempt to undermine respect for police at a sensitive time, to rip up operational independence & to inflame community tensions. No other Home Secretary of any party would ever do this. She’s deliberately seeking to stir up political division around Remembrance Day, a moment when the whole country can come together to pay our respects for sacrifices of the past. And at same time she’s deliberately undermining police ability to deal with problems she whips up”
David Lammy, the Shadow Foreign Secretary, posted on Twitter:
“Suella Braverman seeking to exploit the sensitivities of this moment, and an ignorance of Northern Ireland’s history, to inflame community tensions for her own leadership campaign is an appalling new low. Rishi Sunak must sack her. But he’s too weak.”
The Home Secretary appeared without support in the House of Commons following Labour’s urgent question, with just two MPs backing her, Theresa Villiers and Michael Ellis.
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