If the Met truly believe the UKIP march would have caused disorder, then they should treat the pro-Palestine marches the same way
The Telegraph, 23rd October 2025
“There is no two-tier policing. There is policing without fear or favour – exactly as it should be, exactly what I would expect and require.” So said Sir Keir Starmer when asked about the perception of double standards within British policing.
Like his predecessor, he has held the official, civil service-approved line: that all is well, that Britain’s police act in a perfectly neutral manner, and that to suggest otherwise is to impugn their integrity.
But those of us who have been watching the police for some time now, who have been brave or perhaps foolhardy enough to point out the obvious, see something very different. We have been told, endlessly, that to notice is to divide; that to question is to undermine confidence in the police. Yet the truth is that public confidence was not undermined by those who called out double standards. It was destroyed by the double standards themselves.
Joe Public, who doesn’t live in Westminster or read government briefings, can see it plainly. He knows that if you are on the Right, you can expect the book to be hurled at you with some enthusiasm. But if you are on the Left – and better still, if you are part of a minority group – you will find that same book quietly closed, with a polite nod and a wink sending you on your way.
This dichotomy was laid bare again this week. The Metropolitan Police announced that they would ban a UKIP-organised demonstration in support of mass deportations. The reason? That holding it in Tower Hamlets might provoke “serious disorder”. You don’t have to be a UKIP supporter to see what’s going on here. The message is that the right to protest depends not on the law but on who you are – and who might be offended by your presence.
Curiously, this same power to ban a march was not used for two years of pro-Palestine hate marches, many of which descended into open celebration of extremism and violence. Chants of “Jihad” echoed through London’s streets; slogans like “from the river to the sea”, which even Starmer himself now admits are anti-Semitic, became background noise. Men masked, flares fired, hate shouted. None of that was deemed to pose a “risk of serious disorder”.
Jewish Londoners were prevented from walking freely in their own capital. One was told he could not cross the street because he was “openly Jewish”. When I was Home Secretary, I lost confidence with the Metropolitan Police Commissioner who refused to arrest lawbreakers on those marches for fear of starting a riot. The message was unmistakable: if one group threatens violence, the police will run scared and appease. If another obeys the law but holds the wrong views, they will be punished.
And last week came another chapter in this sorry tale: West Midlands Police barring Jewish fans from attending an Aston Villa match, on the grounds that their presence in a predominantly Muslim area posed a safety risk. This is not policing without fear or favour. It is policing guided by fear alone.
Let’s call this what it is: political policing, shaped not by the rule of law but by the politics of identity. The police’s overriding imperative is no longer impartiality but avoidance of offence, particularly the offence of militant Muslim groups, or of Sadiq Khan. Meanwhile, anyone else – Right-wing campaigners, gender-critical activists, Jewish citizens – can expect the full and unforgiving force of the law.
If the Metropolitan Police truly believe the UKIP march would have caused disorder, then consistency demands that they treat the pro-Palestine marches the same way. Since October last year, over 2,000 protestors have been arrested at those events with over 800 in a single march. How much “serious disorder” does it take before the threshold is met? And how much longer can London’s overstretched police forces afford to devote their weekends to stewarding hate marches while burglaries, assaults, and thefts go uninvestigated?
The answer is obvious: they can’t. And the public knows it. Every homeowner left waiting hours for an officer to attend a crime scene knows it. Every law-abiding citizen watching mobs parade through central London knows it.
In the face of such brazen bias, how can anyone trust the system? How can the police still claim moral authority when their own conduct betrays partiality? There is a reckoning coming – not from radicals, but from ordinary Britons who still believe in fairness, equality before the law, and the old-fashioned idea that the police are meant to protect the public, not police their opinions.
Unless something changes, unless the political class and police leadership rediscover their courage, the entire edifice of trust will collapse. And when that happens, it will not be the so-called “divisive voices” who will have caused it. It will be those who refused to see what was right in front of them.
Suella
