The Prime Minister says some pro-Palestine marches should be banned altogether while there should definitely be tougher policing of the language used on marches by protesters.
He also warned that the public should ‘really question themselves’ if they are on a march where such language is openly used.
Speaking today in the wake of Wednesday’s antisemitic attack in Golders Green, north London, when two Jewish men were stabbed on the streets, Sir Keir Starmer said chants like ‘Globalise the intifada’ were unacceptable.
‘I am a big defender of freedom of expression and peaceful protests but when there are chants like ‘Globalise the intifada’ [they] are completely off limits,’ he tells BBC this morning while admitting he is concerned about the impact on the Jewish community.
He said such chants ‘should be prosecuted’ and ‘anyone who is on a march where that is happening needs to really question themselves’.
Speaking to Radio 4’s Today programme he said he does not want to interfere in ‘operational policing’ but asked if he wanted tougher policing of language used during marches, or if he wanted to stop some protests altogether, he replied:
‘I think certainly the first, and I think there are instances for the latter.’
The Jewish community has criticised the Prime Minister for not doing more to stem the flow of antisemitism they believe has resulted from the regular marches allowed in the capital and across the UK.
The repeated demonstrations have been accused of incubating antisemitism and the government’s response to them has been dismissed as ‘totally inadequate’ by some opposition parties.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer says some pro Palestinian marches should be banned, while there should definitely be tougher policing of the language used on marches by protesters
He warned that the public should ‘really question themselves’ if phrases such as ‘globalise the intifada’ were used on marches
Sir Keir spoke in the wake of Wednesday’s antisemitic attack in Golders Green, north London. Pictured: The moment police officers took down the suspect
Although he acknowledges the need for tougher policing, he also tells BBC Radio 4’s programme that there are ‘very strongly held’ views on the Middle East and Gaza.
And he pledges that the UK will not be drawn into the war in the Middle East, saying ‘there are moments in history that define a generation. I will not drag the UK into a war’, while saying the war has damaged the British economy.
The next major march is planned in London for two weeks today which will coincide with a Unite the Kingdom march planned by far right agitator Tommy Robinson.
Starmer has already promised more money for policing Jewish communities, but Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley said yesterday that a special force was needed to protect Jewish people.
The attack, which has been declared a terror incident by police, follows a string of violent antisemitic incidents including last year’s terrorist attack on a Manchester synagogue where two Jewish men were killed.
Starmer went on to criticise the wider culture of antisemitism in the UK as he talked about his visit to the scene of Wednesday’s attack where anxiety had now gone ‘to another level’.
‘There is a wider piece here – too many people either don’t see antisemitism or don’t want to see antisemitism. The example I would give is the repeated marches that we have now.’
He urged people to accept that this was no longer just about promising to ‘stand with the Jewish community’ but it was a ‘fight for all of us’.
Asked about his visit to Golders Green and meeting the police officers who detained the suspect who were later criticised by Green Party leader Zack Polanski, he backed them and said Polanski was ‘disgraceful’ and ‘not fit to lead a political party’.
‘I was left with a very deep impression of a community that is very concerned and very anxious about their safety and their security and their ability to express who they are and their identity whether that is in their schools, sometimes in the NHS, in their synagogues and in their community and on the streets,’ he said.
‘The week before I had been to Kenton Synagogue where there had been a firebomb and it was precisely the same – this deep sense of concern.’
He admitted that the ‘level of concern there had been for some time’ in the Jewish community had now gone to ‘another level’.
Asked by interviewer Nick Robinson if there was now ‘a national emergency’ as his own independent adviser on terrorism Jonathan Hall said this week, he said: ‘It definitely feels that there is a real sense of urgency in how we respond to this.
‘That is why we have had an emergency COBRA meeting to coordinate the response including with the police and to make sure the security issues were in place.
‘I brought together criminal justice agencies because I feel very strongly that we have to show that justice is swift, it is visible and it is effective to restore confidence.’
He pledged to take ‘wider powers’ and ‘put more money into security so there are more police’ which he promised the government would pay for, saying:
‘The sense of the police presence is really important. It is not just a surge for a few weeks but something much longer term than that.’
He also warned that the chants on pro-Palestine marches were ‘very, very dangerous to the Jewish community’ and said police should ‘take a look at some of the banners’ being carried on marches.
‘There is also a wider argument that we often say in response to this ‘we stand with our Jewish community’ and we do and we will but this has to be our fight as well.
‘It is about what sort of country we want to live in. I want to live in a country where people can express their identity. They can follow their faith and their religion without fear. It is a fight for all of us. It is about the country we want to live in.’
Sir Keir said he was keen to ‘tackle head on’ the criticism two officers faced for being heavy handed and violent in their arrest of the Golders Green suspect calling Green party leader Zack Polanski ‘disgraceful’ for his comments.
‘I met the two officers who had apprehended the attacker. I won’t put words into their mouth and I want everyone just to imagine what it might be like. You’re trying to arrest someone who has already attacked two people and has no regard for life.
‘We know that tasers were fired. I know from my own experience with the police that there are only two shots in a taser – once you have shot them, there is nothing left.
‘The guy on the ground had a rucksack. I don’t know what was going through the minds of those officers but if I was them, I would think he was going to detonate something, he is going to blow me up and everyone around him.
‘In those circumstances you can see what could have gone through their mind – ‘we need to do whatever we can to disable this guy’.’
Asked about whether he condoned the footage of police ‘repeatedly kicking someone on the ground who we now know has mental health issues’, he said:
‘I will say I have seen the footage and I have seen the rucksack and I have seen what the guy was doing with his hands.
‘My instinct in that case that he could be about to blow a device up and that would have a devastating effect and I can see why there would be the instinctive reaction to ‘disable him by whatever means’.
The Prime Minister said it was ‘disgraceful’ to see Zack Polanski support a criticism of their behaviour.
‘I think it is disgraceful. I have no doubt in my mind that those officers probably thought their own life was at risk.
‘You see the footage – there’s a lot of people at the scene as well. That didn’t turn out to be the case thankfully but that is the thing about policing – and I learnt it first hand in Northern Ireland when I was working with the police over there – I sat in the control rooms where they were making decisions about operational matters.
‘You have to make a decision according to the situation as you understand it to be.
‘For politicians to wade in as Zack Polanski did is disgraceful. He is not fit to lead any political party.’