‘It’s one of the fundamental issues of our time’: Ben Jamal, the man behind London’s pro-Palestine march

The son of a Palestinian vicar from west Jerusalem and an English mother has helped bring hundreds of thousands of people on to the capital’s streets

“By and large, it’s all been resolved,” said Ben Jamal, the director of the Palestinian Solidarity Campaign (PSC), of his latest meeting with the Metropolitan police about the pro-Palestine march due to take place on Armistice Day in central London.

A “very long meeting” with officers on Wednesday morning had “focused on ironing out the final details of logistics”. There would be just one final discussion to confirm the precise finishing point of Saturday’s procession from Marble Arch to Nine Elms, close to the US embassy, he said.

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Rishi Sunak says pro-Palestine march on Saturday is ‘proof of UK’s commitment to freedom’ – as it happened

Prime minister says he finds prospect of march ‘disrespectful’ but says freedom includes ‘right to peacefully protest’

Keith is only now asking about Covid. All the questions so far have been about process.

Sedwill says, when concerns about Covid arose, he did not agree to a meeting of the Cobra emergency committee taking place immediately. He wanted to ensure that the meeting was prepared for. And he was concerned that having a Cobra meeting might alarm people.

I felt that a Cobra which might have been convened primarily for communications purposes wasn’t wise. Two days later I was advised there was a genuine cross-government basis for it and I agreed.

May we be plain please as to what you mean by communications purposes. Were you concerned that the Cobra was being called by the DHSC [the Department of Health and Social Care] for presentation purposes, that is to say to make a splash about the role of DHSC, perhaps its secretary of state [Matt Hancock], and that’s why you initially hesitated.

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Wednesday briefing: Should a pro-Palestine march on Armistice Day be banned?

In today’s newsletter: The Metropolitan police has resisted calls to ban a march in support of a ceasefire in Gaza – but that may not be the end of the story

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Good morning. Claims that a pro-Palestine march planned in London for Armistice Day this weekend poses a threat to the Cenotaph just won’t go away. Yesterday, the justice secretary, Alex Chalk, said that even those with no malicious intent risked supporting extremists at “an extremely important time in our calendar”, and called for the march to be postponed. “The police must stop any odious behaviour at the Cenotaph,” the Conservative MP James Sunderland said. “But far better for the government to ensure that no protest goes near it in the first place.”

Sunderland’s demand may be perplexing to the protesters: the march on Saturday is intended to run from Hyde Park to the US embassy, nowhere near the war memorial in Whitehall.

Israel-Hamas war | Israeli forces are “in the heart of Gaza City”, Israel’s defence minister Yoav Gallant said, as Palestinian families waving white flags streamed away from the capital on Tuesday. Meanwhile, after Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would take indefinite “security responsibility” for the territory, the White House said that it would oppose any reoccupation of Gaza. For the latest, head to the live blog.

Fossil fuels | The world’s fossil fuel producers are planning expansions that would blow the planet’s carbon budget twice over, a UN report has found. Petrostates’ plans would lead to 460% more coal production, 83% more gas, and 29% more oil in 2030 than would be possible under the internationally agreed 1.5C target, the report said.

Vaping | UK ministers are considering a new tax on vapes in a significant expansion of moves to create a “smoke-free generation” that also includes the gradual introduction of a total ban on smoking for children. The move to tax vapes was one of the few surprise measures in a king’s speech that appeared largely designed to create dividing lines with Labour. Read a summary of measures in the bill.

Covid inquiry | The government body set up to coordinate Covid policy had no warning about Rishi Sunak’s “eat out to help out” scheme and felt “blindsided” by the Treasury over it, the inquiry into the pandemic has been told.

Childcare | Poorer families are being “locked out” of expanded free nursery hours, experts have warned, as Guardian analysis reveals that the number of not-for-profit nurseries in England’s most-deprived areas has fallen sharply. Close to a third of not-for-profit nurseries closed their doors or were taken over by private companies, including private equity firms, in the poorest parts of the country from 2018-2022.

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UK ministers to hold Cobra meeting on terrorism threat from Israel-Hamas conflict

Suella Braverman will meet police and national security officials at No 10 to discuss ‘accelerated’ risk

UK ministers will hold an emergency meeting of its Cobra committee amid concerns that the Israel-Gaza conflict has raised the possibility of a domestic terrorist incident.

The home secretary, Suella Braverman, will meet national security officials and police at No 10 on Monday to assess the security risk after the deadly Hamas attack on Israel more than three weeks ago.

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Police seek four people for ‘pro-Hamas’ signs at Palestine demo in London

Placards declaring support for Hamas and featuring images of paragliders used to attack Israel would break UK terrorism law

Police are looking for four people alleged to have shown support for terrorism, including a man who held a placard declaring full support for Hamas, and three women alleged to have brandished photos of paragliders, which may be a reference to those that were used to attack Israel.

The Metropolitan police’s counter-terrorism command issued photos of the suspects and said hate crimes continued to increase. Another big pro-Palestinian demonstration through central London is scheduled for Saturday.

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Suella Braverman to urge Met to use ‘full force of the law’ over ‘jihad’ chants at protest – UK politics live

Home secretary to meet Metropolitan police commissioner after officers said no offences were identified in footage from demonstration in London

Keir Starmer has said he had “productive” talks during a visit to Tata’s giant Port Talbot plant in south Wales.

The Labour leader told broadcasters:

We have ambitious plans for the steel industry. We see this as the future, not the past. That requires strategic thinking about our economy. We want to go to clean power, that will bring down energy costs.

If we are able to put in place our mission for clean power 2030, that will require more steel – and therefore we want the demand for steel to go up. Of course, we need to transition to green steel. But we must do this transition very carefully, protecting the jobs and the skills and the history that we have here in south Wales. Connecting and bridging that to the future, which is green steel.

So, we have been having productive discussions this morning about what I think will be a very bright future for steel. But only with strategic thinking around it.

They’re really living in a situation that my mother-in-law describes as torture.

The whole night there will be missiles, rocket fire, drones – they don’t know whether they are going to make it from one night to the next.

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Met must explain decision over ‘jihad’ chant at protest, says minister

Mark Harper says police should use full force of the law, as Met chief due to meet Suella Braverman

The Metropolitan police will be asked to explain to the home secretary why they failed to take action against demonstrators who chanted about “jihad” in London at the weekend, the transport secretary, Mark Harper, has said.

Suella Braverman is to meet the force’s commissioner, Sir Mark Rowley, after video footage from a rally on Saturday organised by the Islamist group Hizb ut-Tahrir showed a man talking about Palestine and asking what the solution was, before the word “jihad” was heard.

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Gaps in UK law allowing ‘jihad’ ‘known to government’

Britain’s ex-head of counter-terrorism says government failed to act on a recommendation to change legislation

Gaps in UK law that would allow words such as “jihad” to be shouted at rallies were known to the government but not acted upon, Britain’s former head of counter-terrorism has revealed.

The comments from Neil Basu come as some ministers condemned police for their handling of weekend demonstrations in London, with the home secretary, Suella Braverman, due to meet the Metropolitan police commissioner on Monday.

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Family of black boy rammed by Met police car win fight for IOPC inquiry

Watchdog to investigate why 13-year-old with water pistol was knocked off bike by armed police in Hackney

The family of the black boy rammed off his pedal cycle by police who mistook his water pistol for a real gun have won their fight to have an independent investigation into the incident launched.

The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) on Friday reversed a decision it had made twice to let the Metropolitan police investigate the actions of its own officers.

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Police watchdog investigates conduct of 12 officers and staff in David Carrick case

IOPC says 11 current or former officers and one staff member being investigated over handling of allegations against Carrick

Twelve police employees, including serving officers, are under investigation for misconduct over the handling of allegations against the serial rapist and former Metropolitan police officer David Carrick.

Carrick, 48, a former armed officer, pleaded guilty in January to 85 serious offences including 48 rapes between 2003 and 2020, making him one of the worst sexual offenders in modern British criminal history.

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London police defy ban on badges linked to far right and white supremacy

Met officers seen wearing divisive ‘thin blue line’ symbol at sensitive protests despite orders to remove them

Metropolitan police officers are openly defying orders not to wear badges appropriated by the far right and linked to white supremacy.

In July, the force’s chief, Mark Rowley, banned officers from wearing the “thin blue line” badge saying that in the US an equivalent symbol had been used by “hard-right groups”.

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First minister says SNP MP who defected to Tories ‘probably never believed’ in Scottish independence – as it happened

Humza Yousaf says Lisa Cameron’s move was ‘the least surprising news I’ve had as leader of the SNP’

NHS waiting lists have hit a new record high, with more people facing long waits, PA Media reports. PA says:

Figures for the NHS in England show 7.75 million people were waiting to start treatment at the end of August, up from 7.68 million in July.

This is the highest number since records began in August 2007 and comes despite Rishi Sunak saying cutting waiting lists is one of his priorities.

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Met increases patrols in London after reports of Israel attack celebrations

Minister shares video posted by Rachel Riley of people waving Palestinian flags in west London

The Metropolitan police have said they have increased patrols in London after receiving reports of people celebrating the attack on Israel by Hamas.

Hamas sent fighters across the border and fired thousands of rockets in what it said was a new operation on Saturday morning. Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said the group would “pay a price that it hasn’t known until now” as he called up reservists.

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Met police failing children at risk and victim blaming, says damning report

Inspectorate demands emergency changes as Scotland Yard accepts its child protection services are in chaos

The Metropolitan police are failing in their efforts to protect children from criminal and sexual exploitation while bungling efforts to find missing young people, a damning official report has found.

The findings have led Scotland Yard to accept its child protection services are in chaos, and a senior officer admitted that “too often we are letting them down”. The policing inspectorate, which authored the report, said it was also concerned with “the frequency with which officers and staff use victim-blaming language”.

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Years of discontent has erupted with Met police firearms protest

When it comes to investigating police shootings, what all sides agree on is it takes is too long

The Metropolitan police’s firearms command is seen as prestigious to serve in, but Louise Casey’s damning report into Britain’s largest force published in March found it had become dogged by cultural issues.

Some of its virtues can slide into vices. It is close knit, offering strong support for colleagues in trouble, which can turn into an insularity. It’s members volunteer to face extreme danger, rarely open fire, and some can appear to sneer at those who question them, viewing it as doubting their professionalism.

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‘Size of a small police force’ of Met officers are suspended or on restricted duties

Scotland Yard says it will take ‘two or more years to root out those who are corrupting policing’

Scotland Yard has said it will take years to root out rogue officers serving in the capital as “the size of a small police force” is suspended or on restricted duties.

Britain’s biggest force revealed that 201 officers were suspended and 860 were on restricted duties, equivalent to the size of Warwickshire or Wiltshire police forces. There are 34,000 police officers in the Metropolitan police.

100 officers have been sacked for gross misconduct in the past year, up by 66% on the normal rate.

201 officers are suspended, up from 69 in September last year.

275 are awaiting a gross misconduct hearing, a significant proportion of which involved alleged violence against women and girls, compared with 136 last year.

The number of reports from the public and officers of alleged misconduct has doubled.

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Met police agree six-figure payout to man hit by baton at protest

Exclusive: Alfie Meadows underwent brain surgery after being struck by officer at tuition fees demonstration

The Metropolitan police have apologised and agreed to pay a six-figure settlement to a man who needed emergency brain surgery after being hit by an officer’s baton during the 2010 university tuition fees protests.

Alfie Meadows, then a 20-year-old philosophy student at Middlesex University, sustained a brain injury after he was struck on the head during demonstrations against the tripling of tuition fees. He needed more than 100 staples in his head and was left with a large scar.

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Arrested at Sarah Everard’s vigil: how Patsy Stevenson’s life changed for ever

The 30-year-old, now awarded damages by the Met police, talks about how a photo made her a target for hate and how she hopes to move on

There is one thing that Patsy Stevenson can’t stand when people see the image of her being pinned down on the ground by police on the night of the Sarah Everard vigil: them saying that she looked good.

“Some people were like, ‘Oh, you look so great’, or ‘Your hair looks amazing in that picture’,” she says, after learning that the Metropolitan police have settled the claim that she and Dania al-Obeid, who was also at the vigil, brought against them. “But that was a really traumatic event for me and I don’t think people always take into consideration that I’m not a picture, I’m a person.”

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Met police pays damages to women arrested at Sarah Everard vigil

Apology and ‘substantial’ payouts to Patsy Stevenson and Dania al-Obeid mark major climbdown after years of legal battles

Scotland Yard has apologised and paid “substantial damages” to two women arrested during the vigil for Sarah Everard, in a major climbdown following years of legal battles over the policing of the event.

In a move that the new Metropolitan police commissioner, Mark Rowley, will hope draws a line under one of the darkest periods of the Met’s recent history, the force acknowledged that it was “understandable” that Patsy Stevenson and Dania Al-Obeid had wanted to attend a candlelit vigil at Clapham Common because they felt women had been “badly let down”.

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Police renew calls for help to identify body found in Thames in 2013

Body of black man aged between 40 and 50 with beard and moustache was recovered near Bankside Pier

Police have renewed calls for information on a body found 10 years ago that is yet to be formally identified.

Metropolitan police were called to Bankside Pier in Southwark on 26 August 2013 after reports a member of the public had seen a man’s body in the River Thames.

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