‘Encouraging hate and extremism’ should be met with ‘full force of the law’, Sunak says
Rishi Sunak spoke out following a series of incidents at pro-Palestine demos last weekend
Lee Harpin is the Jewish News's political editor
Rishi Sunak has said those found to be encouraging “hate and extremism” should be met with “the full force of the law” in response to incidents including chants of “jihad” at pro-Palestine demos last weekend.
Responding to a series of questions from MPs about incidents, including placards in support of the proscribed terror group Hamas, the prime minister told the House of Commons that “under the Terrorism Acts of both 2001 and 2004 glorification of terrorism, support of proscribed organisations, or encouraging of terrorism are all offences and will be met with the full force of the law.”
Labour Friends of Israel parliamentary chair Steve McCabe, the MP for Birmingham Selly Oak, had asked about Hizb ut-Tahrir who he said were “a fundamentalist organisation who are banned in 40 countries and across most of the Arab world.”
Footage had shown a speaker on the London demo organised by the group on Saturday leading a chant of “Jihad”.McCabe asked on Monday:”Why are they allowed to parade on the streets of London and call for the destruction of the state of Israel?”
Sunak responded saying:”As I previously said, we of course keep the list of proscribed organisations under review, but do not routinely comment on whether an organisation is or is not under consideration for proscription.
“What I would also say, is I refer him to the comments that I made before: hate and extremism of the type we saw this weekend has no place in our society, and it should be met with the full force of the law.”
The Conservative former minister Sir Michael Ellis was among those to call for those “supporting this vicious terrorism” to be subject to the full force of the law.”
Earlier, prior to the PM’s statement in the Commons, the Conservative MP Bob Blackman had accused some at UK based universities of engaging in “glorification” of the Hamas October 7th atrocity.
Blackman said it was not acceptable for UK institutions to tolerate such activity.In response, government minister Robert Halfon said:”Sadly there are a number of Hamas’s useful idiots, a fifth column across some of our universities.”
Halfon added:”We expect our universities to be a safe place for all our Jewish students.”
Downing Street had earlier indicated there are no plans to give police more powers to address chants deemed to be extremist, after “jihad” was shouted at a pro-Palestine rally.
No 10 suggested new measures would not be introduced to address use of such language during protests because forces already have “extensive powers”.
But Met Police chief Sir Mark Rowley, who was asked by the home secretary today to explain why the protesters were not arrested, said the laws around extremism and hate crime needed to change.
After the meeting with Suella Braverman, Rowley said: “We can’t enforce taste or decency, but we can enforce the law.”
He said the conversation with Braverman was “constructive” despite her comments over the weekend.
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