Met chief must rebuild trust with Jewish community, says Sunak

Rishi Sunak has said Sir Mark Rowley needs to rebuild “confidence and trust” with the Jewish community in order to retain his support.

The Prime Minister said he would back the Metropolitan Police commissioner on the condition he convinced the public that his officers were not “tolerating behaviour that we would all collectively deem unacceptable”.

It follows claims that the force has “chosen a side” on pro-Palestinian protests.

Sir Mark is under huge pressure and has already faced high-profile calls to resign over the force’s threat to arrest an “openly Jewish” man at a rally in London.

Mr Sunak expressed “shock and anger” at the incident, calling it “clearly wrong”, and demanded action from the Met chief to rebuild trust with the Jewish community and the wider public.

He also confirmed that James Cleverly, the Home Secretary, would meet Sir Mark to discuss the matter on Monday.

Asked at a Downing Street press conference whether he had confidence in the Met commissioner, Mr Sunak said: “Yes, I do have confidence in him, but that is on the basis that he works to rebuild the confidence and trust of not just the Jewish community but the wider public, particularly people in London, but more broadly.

“And you regain that trust and that confidence by making it clear that the police are not tolerating behaviour that we would all collectively deem unacceptable when we see it because it undermines our values. I think that is critical, and I know the Home Secretary will be meeting the commissioner later today.”

Earlier, Suella Braverman, the former home secretary, claimed the Met had “chosen a side” on pro-Palestinian marches. She hit out at the force over its treatment of Gideon Falter, the chief executive of the Campaign Against Anti-Semitism, who was stopped by police as he tried to cross the road during a protest in central London.

Mr Falter, who had just come from the synagogue and was wearing a kippah skullcap and carrying a bag containing his prayer shawl, was told by a Met Police sergeant at the scene that his presence could inflame tensions.

In the exchange, which was filmed, the officer can be heard saying to him: “You are quite openly Jewish. This is a pro-Palestinian march. I am not accusing you of anything, but I am worried about the reaction to your presence.”

Mr Falter said he was approached in a similar way later by another officer, and the Met later apologised, calling the comments “hugely regrettable”.

It is the first time Mr Sunak has declared confidence in Sir Mark since the footage of the incident emerged, with Downing Street initially refusing to back him.

Mr Sunak said: “I share the shock and the anger that many are feeling when they saw the clips over the weekend.

“And what I would say about Mark Rowley and the police, they do have a difficult job, of course, I appreciate that. But what happened was clearly wrong. And it’s right that they’ve apologised for that.”

Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Mrs Braverman said the Met’s treatment of Mr Falter proved it was failing to “strike the right balance of competing rights” and curb the risk of violence towards Jewish people at a time of “unprecedented anti-Semitism” in Britain.

The former home secretary, who has called for Sir Mark to resign, said: “At this point in time there is unprecedented anti-Semitism on our streets, there is disproportionate police resourcing being deployed to police these marches and the police have chosen a side,” she added.

During the exchange, Mrs Braverman was asked whether she had seen a video of the incident in its entirety, which gives further context.

Presenter Mishal Husain said it showed an officer accusing Mr Falter of being disingenuous and seeking to antagonise the marchers, asking whether that changed Mrs Braverman’s position.

Mrs Braverman said she had seen “clips” of the footage, adding: “My complaint is not against the individual police officers – they are all working really hard in really difficult circumstances. My complaint is the wholesale failure to combat anti-Semitism and to maintain the peace on the streets of London over the last six months.”

However, during a round of broadcast interviews on Monday, Andrew Mitchell, the deputy Foreign Secretary, said he did not personally think it was “very helpful” to call for the Met chief’s resignation.

‘Far beyond victim-blaming’

Mr Falter said the force’s handling of the row had been “shambolic” after it had to apologise twice in the space of a few hours on Friday. He also denied suggestions that Sir Mark had offered to meet him.

“It is by now clear to everyone that the Met’s policing policy at these weekly anti-Israel marches represents the inverse of how policing should work. Police should be protecting those believed to be under threat, not threatening them with arrest to appease suspected violent racists,” he said.

“Since the incident, the Met has issued and withdrawn a series of statements, some apologetic and some belligerent. There have also been suggestions in the media that the Commissioner, Sir Mark Rowley, has offered to meet with me.

“No such meeting has been offered, and any suggestion otherwise, if they came from the police, could have been a ploy by the Met, which is scrambling to save the Commissioner’s job.”

He added: “Some individuals have also been wheeled out to suggest that I provoked the crowd, or that there is somehow more to the story than it appears from the footage. A former chief superintendent has even outrageously suggested that I assaulted a police officer and should have been arrested. This has now gone far beyond victim-blaming.

“These tactics are desperate, but they reveal the Met’s priorities. Therefore, at this point, it is not clear what any meetings with the Commissioner, who has the distinction of presiding over the worst surge in anti-Semitic hate crime on record, will achieve. It is time to hold him to account.”

Mr Falter said that “the fault lies squarely with Sir Mark”, adding: It is time for him to go, and if he does not resign, the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, and the Home Secretary, James Cleverly, should remove him from his post.”

He said he would turn up at the next pro-Palestinian march and encouraged other Jews and allies to join him.