A pro-Iranian ‘hate rally’ in London will now take place as a static protest, as Shabana Mahmood confirmed she was powerless to block it from going ahead.
The Home Secretary approved a Metropolitan Police request to prohibit the annual Al Quds Day march on Sunday ‘to prevent serious public disorder’.
But a static demonstration – based in a single location – is set to go ahead instead.
The Public Order Act – under measures set out under Section 13 of the legislation – allows the authorities to ban marches but there are no equivalent powers for ‘public assemblies’ which remain in one place.
She told MPs: ‘The police and Home Secretary only have the power to prohibit a public procession.
‘Section 13 cannot be used to ban a static protest, referred to in the legislation as a public assembly.
‘Should a static demonstration proceed this weekend, the police will not be able to stop it.
‘Instead, they will be able to impose conditions such as dictating the precise location and timing.
‘People will therefore be able to exercise their right to peaceful protest, though the full force of the law will be enforced if hate crimes or other crimes are committed.’
The Home Secretary added that restrictions on the protest – including its location – will be a matter for the Metropolitan Police.
It remains to be seen whether the force will allow it to be staged in a high-profile public place, such as the capital’s Trafalgar Square.
People take part in a pro-Palestine march organised by Al Quds in London on March 23, 2025
Ms Mahmood said the organisers of the event, the Islamic Human Rights Commission (IHRC), was ‘an organisation that has been closely associated with the Iranian regime’.
And the timing of this weekend’s demonstration ‘comes at a time when the Iranian regime is attacking British forces and bases, as well as those of our allies’.
During a Commons debate on the Home Secretary’s statement, Conservative MP Dr Andrew Murrison expressed concern that the IHRC would be able to ‘exploit a loophole’ in the law and continue with a static demo.
Ms Mahmood replied: ‘It’s not a loophole that the law deliberately treats the two things differently.
‘The policing challenges of a static protest are different in nature from the policing challenge of policing a march which is moving from one location to another.
‘The Public Order Act just recognises the difference between those two things.
‘The police do have the powers to condition the way that a static protest takes place.
‘They’ve made use of those conditions very well to date. I’m sure they will continue to do so.’
The event – named after the Arabic word for Jerusalem – was created by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini after Iran‘s 1979 revolution to express opposition to Israel.
It has long drawn heavy criticism, which grew today after its organisers expressed support for Iran’s former leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was recently killed in an Israeli airstrike.
Faisal Bodi, a spokesman for march organiser the IHRC, insisted the despot was a man of ‘principle and integrity’.
Asked if he would hold a picture of Khamenei, Mr Bodi told the BBC: ‘Happily. I would rather hold a picture of the Ayatollah than Keir Starmer or Donald Trump. He was a man of principle, a man of integrity, a man who stood for justice.’
He added: ‘In the same way I would happily hold a picture of Nelson Mandela and Malcolm X and many other towering personalities.’
Mr Bodi added that Khamenei ‘stood on the side of Palestine’. He also quoted Tehran’s figures for the number of protesters that had been killed during a recent wave of street protests – rather than independently verified figures that are in the tens of thousands.
Today, the IHRC said it ‘strongly condemned’ the Met’s decision to ban its march and would continue with a static protest.
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood delivers a ministerial statement in the House of Commons today on her decision to allow the Al Quds march to be banned – but she explained she and the police are powerless to prevent a ‘static’ demonstration from taking place instead
But Lord Walney, the government’s former independent advisor on political violence and disruption, said Ms Mahmood had made ‘the right decision’.
‘This has always been a highly questionable march, and it is ludicrous of its organisers to suggest that it’s been entirely good natured and there’s been no extremist or legal material on display,’ he said.
‘It has been effectively a festival of Jewish of hatred for Jewish people, and there has been clear support for criminal organisations, for prescribed terrorist organisations at the margin.’
IHRC said in a statement this morning: ‘IHRC strongly condemns the decision by the Metropolitan Police to ban the Al Quds Day March. However, a static Al Quds Day protest will still go ahead.
‘We hope to see you on Sunday 15th March InshaAllah. All preparations must continue as planned. We are seeking legal advice and this decision will not go unchallenged.’
The statement added: ‘If it was not clear already, the police have brazenly abandoned their sworn principle of policing without fear or favour, and have capitulated to the pressure of the Zionist lobby.
‘The Metropolitan Police unashamedly regurgitate Zionist talking points about IHRC without a shred of evidence. They cannot present evidence because there is none – we are an independent NGO.
‘In essence, this is a politically charged decision; not one taken for the security of the people of London.’
The organisation had previously insisted the demonstration is always ‘good natured and peaceful’.
Announcing her decision yesterday to ban the march, Ms Mahmood said she was ‘satisfied doing so is necessary to prevent serious public disorder, due to the scale of the protest and multiple counter-protests, in the context of the ongoing conflict in the Middle East’.
The Home Secretary added: ‘Should a stationary demonstration proceed, the police will be able to apply strict conditions.
‘I expect to see the full force of the law applied to anyone spreading hatred and division instead of exercising their right to peaceful protest.’
The ban on a procession will remain in force until April 11.
Former Met chief superintendent Dal Babu said this morning that the annual march would be ‘extremely challenging’ to police.
He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: ‘The last time we had a ban was in 2012, so this is a very, very serious decision, but it would have been based on police intelligence.’
Mr Babu added: ‘There are people who want to demonstrate against what (the) Iran regime is doing. There are Jewish groups that want to demonstrate around the Al Quds.
‘There are other groups who want to demonstrate… I understand from the police that this will be groups that want to do counter-demonstrations near the point where this demonstration is taking place.
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood arrives for a Cabinet meeting in Downing Street yesterday
‘So, it’s going to be an extremely challenging situation for the police to manage.’
He later added: ‘An outright ban is extremely unusual and I think we need to trust the police, trust their judgment.’
It is the first time a protest march has been banned since 2012.
The Met said previous Al Quds Day marches resulted in arrests for supporting terrorist organisations and antisemitic hate crimes.
In a statement, the force said: ‘The decision to ban it this year is purely based on a risk assessment of this specific protest and counter-protests – we do not police taste or decency or prefer one political view over another, but we will do everything we can to reduce violence and disorder.’
The Met said the ‘uniquely complex’ international situation and ‘severe’ risks meant merely placing conditions on the protest ‘will not be sufficient to prevent it from resulting in serious public disorder’.
It added that it would place ‘strict conditions’ on any static protest, which the law does not allow the police or Government to ban, but ‘given the tensions, we have to accept that confrontations could still take place’.
The decision follows calls from Labour and Conservative MPs to ban the march.
Earlier yesterday, courts minister Sarah Sackman said people expressing support for ‘the malign regime in Iran’ should not be ‘on the streets of London calling for hate and hostility against this country’.
Shadow Home Office minister Alicia Kearns also called for the march to be cancelled, saying there was ‘no place in our country for the celebration of terrorists’.
The Campaign Against Antisemitism welcomed the decision to ban the march, saying it was ‘a positive development’ and adding: ‘Allowing this hate-fest to go ahead would have sent the message that Islamists rule the roost in Britain.’