Fury as policing pro-Palestine marches costs taxpayers more than £25m ‘while placing unsustainable burden on police’
PRO-Palestine marches have cost taxpayers more than £25million while placing “unsustainable” burdens on the police, MPs have warned.
They said the protests over Israel’s military response to the October 7 Hamas terror attacks are seriously disrupting officers’ ability to fight crime.
Gaza demos in London have swallowed up 26,121 Met shifts so far.
The cross-party Home Affairs Committee also details the shocking surge in hate crime at them.
One top cop told them: “On every occasion so far we have found offences of hate crime, supporting a proscribed organisation and people looking to intimidate.
“They are very small numbers but they exist nonetheless.”
More than 4,000 rest days have also been cancelled in just three months to ensure forces have capacity to patrol the marches.
By December, Scotland Yard had spent £18.9million policing them while the cost outside of London stands at £6.5million.
In their report the MPs write: “With many officers regularly being deployed from outside the Met, and should these protests continue indefinitely, it stands to reason that forces across the country will be less able to carry out everyday neighbourhood and response policing that is so vital to the public.”
The report also laments the surge in hate crime since the October 7 attacks — and that half of British Jews have considered leaving the UK in that time.