Watch: Met Police chief grabs journalist’s microphone after ‘two-tier policing’ question
Sir Mark Rowley was caught on camera grabbing a reporter’s microphone following a question about two-tier policing.
The Metropolitan Police Commissioner was on his way out of the Government’s emergency Cobra meeting, where ministers and police chiefs were discussing the response to the far-Right violence sweeping Britain, when he was approached by journalists.
A reporter from Sky News asked: “Are we going to end two-tier policing, sir?” – a reference to claims that forces have been tougher in their response to the far-Right riots than unrest at pro-Palestinian demonstrations or disturbances in the Harehills area of Leeds last month.
Rather than respond to the question, Sir Mark grabbed the journalist’s mic and threw part of it to the ground before walking towards a waiting car on Whitehall.
In a statement, a Scotland Yard spokesman rejected suggestions that Sir Mark had been upset by the question or anything that had happened at the Government meeting.
The spokesman said: “The Commissioner had a positive and constructive meeting with the Prime Minister and partners across government and policing. He was in a hurry to return to New Scotland Yard to take action on the agreed next steps.”
‘Story is a distraction’
In a statement issued on Monday evening, Sir Mark said: “This morning I was part of a positive and constructive Cobra meeting with the Prime Minister about our collective response to hateful behaviour and violent disorder across the country.
“There’s been a story running all day about my exit from the meeting. This is a distraction from the critical events we are dealing with.
“It was agreed the Prime Minister would provide an update afterwards and it was not my place to speak publicly. In an effort to move a microphone out of my path I’m sorry that I knocked it to the floor. That was never my intention.
“We remain focused on the critical and urgent matters at hand.”
It comes as a police force has admitted public confidence was undermined after an officer was filmed telling counter-protesters to “get rid”.
Staffordshire Police said they had launched a review after a protest liaison officer told a crowd gathered outside a mosque in Stoke-on-Trent to “discard” any weapons within the place of worship.
The officer was filmed in a video, which was live-streamed on TikTok, addressing a crowd of men outside the Darul Falah mosque in Hanley, on Saturday.
‘There’s no two-tier policing’
Questions over whether police respond differently to unrest depending on whether it comes from the Right or Left wing, emerged last November when Suella Braverman, then the home secretary, wrote an article in which she said there was a perception that senior police officers played “favourites when it comes to protesters”.
She claimed aggressive Right-wing protesters were “rightly met with a stern response”, while “pro-Palestinian mobs” were “largely ignored”. Days later, she was sacked and replaced by James Cleverly in a Cabinet reshuffle.
In a statement calling for Parliament to be recalled from its summer recess, Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader, said the “impression of two-tier policing” had “become widespread”.
But in a televised address following the Cobra meeting, the Prime Minister said: “There’s no two-tier policing – there’s policing without fear or favour. That is a non-issue. The focus here is not on the apparent motivation of anyone involved in this. This is violence.”
The Prime Minister’s official spokesman told reporters: “The job of the police is to keep everyone safe, to tackle violence and disorder no matter the origination.”
Dame Priti Patel, a former Conservative home secretary, also dismissed Mr Farage’s claims, telling Times Radio: “There is a clear difference between effectively blocking streets or roads being closed, to burning down libraries, hotels, food banks and attacking places of worship. What we have seen is thuggery, violence, racism.
“Those kinds of comments are simply not relevant right now. That is not correct, it is not correct.”
More than 420 people have been arrested since riots erupted following the knife attack on children attending a Taylor Swift-themed holiday dance club last Monday.