Suella Braverman has said it is “time for action, not words” from Rishi Sunak after calling for the prime minister to introduce emergency legislation to restrict Palestine marches.
The former home secretary also stepped up her criticism of the policing of demos, claiming “we need to see a step change in the police response. ”
In the interview with GB News, Braverman said she welcoming a speech the PM made last Friday outside Downing Street, but added: “The time for words has come to an end and we do need to see action.”
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She claimed last weekend saw further pro-Palestine demos which saw “tens of thousands of people take to the streets, chanting hateful slogans and behaving in a totally unacceptable way in many instances, overwhelming the police, notably, where police resource has been disproportionate to actually what’s happening.”
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak giving a press conference in Downing Street.
While in her role as home secretary, Braverman was accused of bitterly inflaming the situation ahead of a Palestine demo close to Remembrance Day on 11 November.
The demo saw police make significant arrests after far-right activists defended on central London at the same time as the pro-Palestine demo.
But the government’s independent adviser on antisemitism Lord Mann openly raised concerns about Braverman’s time as home secretary.
He said she “ignored advice I provided on how to tackle antisemitism and issues for her department. In fact she never even bothered to read them. Her inaction in office is a part of the problem.”
Lord Mann
Further criticising the police response to marches in her GB News interview, Braverman added:”So we need to see a step change in the police response. They need to be enforcing the law.
“They need to be arresting people who are using threatening or abusive language.
“We need to be holding the police to account in a better way and I would have liked to have seen an emergency law introduced to actually empower ministers and empower all of those policymakers who are responsible for this issue to actually take steps to restrict some of these marches. You know, this has been going on now for four months.
“It’s become a weekly fixture. Parts of London have become a no go areas for Jewish people.”
Lord Mann joined those criticising attempts to ban marches. He wrote on X/Twitter: “We live in a democracy, thankfully. The biggest losers if we start to restrict the right to peaceful protest will be the Jewish community. Extremists are a problem. Noisy protests are not.”
Braverman met with Campaign Against Antisemitism chief Gideon Falter on Tuesday in Westminster.
