Home Secretary Suella Braverman will today demand answers at a meeting with Met Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley after protesters jumped on buses and held up antisemitic signs over the weekend.
Scotland Yard blundered into a major row after live tweeting events with emoji-laden messages explaining the words like jihad have “many meanings”.
PASuella Braverman will demand answers from Met Chief Mark Rowley today after[/caption]
Home Office minister Robert Jenrick blasted: “Chanting jihad on the streets of London is completely unacceptable… it needs to be tackled with the full strength of the law.”
He said the term was “inciting terrorist violence, adding: “I think a lot of people would be surprised by the Metropolitan Police’s analysis of that issue.”
But on X/Twitter on Sunday, the Met had said no offences were identified in a video of a Hizb ut-Tahrir Britain protest showing a man chanting “Jihad”.
A video posted on social media shows a man speaking into a microphone in front of a banner reading “Muslim Armies! Rescue the People of Palestine”, with the name of the group “Hizb ut-Tahrir Britain” on it.
The main speaker asks: “What is the solution to liberate people from the concentration camp called Palestine?”
A man standing to the side of the speaker, but neither on a platform nor speaking into the microphone, can then be heard chanting words including “Jihad”, as can some others attending the protest.
The Met responded to the post on social media, saying the word “Jihad” has “a number of meanings”, and that specialist counter-terrorism officers had not identified any offences arising from the specific clip filmed in central London.
The Met said in a statement on Saturday: “In addition to officers deployed with the protest, we have counter-terrorism officers with specialist language skills and subject expertise working alongside public order officers in our main operations room, assessing any video and photos that emerge.
“They have reviewed a video from the Hizb ut-Tahrir protest in which a man can be seen to chant ‘Jihad, jihad’.
“The word has a number of meanings but we know the public will most commonly associate it with terrorism.
“Specialist officers have assessed the video and have not identified any offences arising from the specific clip.
We have also sought advice from specialist Crown Prosecution Service lawyers, who have reached the same conclusion.
“However, recognising the way language like this will be interpreted by the public and the divisive impact it will have, officers identified the man involved and spoke to him to discourage any repeat of similar chanting.”
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Last night a source close to Suella Braverman said: “The Home Secretary is already due to meet the Metropolitan Police commissioner tomorrow to discuss the ongoing Israel-Gaza protests and will be asking for an explanation over the response to incidents which took place on Saturday.
“There can be no place for incitement to hatred or violence on Britain’s streets and, as the Home Secretary has made clear, the police are urged to crack down on anyone breaking the law.”
This morning Transport Secretary Mark Harper said: “I saw those clips of that chanting at the weekend. I along with many people would have been disturbed by it.
“The Home Secretary will make it clear that the Government thinks the full force of the law should be used.
“The police are operationally independent, which I think is appropriate, and they will have to explain the reasons for the decisions they have taken.”
It comes as outrage was spreading last night over a video circulating of a Tube driver leading passengers on chants of “Free Palestine”.
But dithering Transport for London officials — under pressure to sack the culprit — claimed it did not know who was responsible.
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