Met commissioner denies he was 'intervening in politics' with Polanski letter
Morning, welcome to our UK politics blog.
The commissioner Mark Rowley has denied he was “intervening in politics” after he wrote an open letter to Zack Polanski regarding the manner in which officers arrested the Golders Green attack suspect.
He accused Polanski of fuelling “rising tensions” after the Green party leader reshared a post on X which stated:
“Essentially his officers were repeatedly and violently kicking a mentally ill man in the head when he was already incapacitated by Taser.”
In the open letter published on social media, Rowley expressed that he was “disappointed” that the politician had amplified “inaccurate and misinformed commentary” that “undermines officer confidence to act”.
The public dispute arises days before the local elections, with commentators questioning whether Rowley’s letter breached regulations prohibiting police from engaging in political activity.
Rowley denied that the letter to Polanski constituted “intervening in politics”.
“When somebody influential puts something out there which is incorrect and can undermine the confidence of my officers to protect Londoners, they need to see that I’m supporting them to give them that confidence to carry on and do their job,”he told Times Radio.
“I’m not intervening in politics. He was intervening in operational policing and I need to defend my officers’ ability to do that.”
A Green party source stated:
“Zack has seen the video like everyone else, and doesn’t know the full picture and knows it was a very difficult situation for the authorities, but we do need to understand more about the response.”
Additional political and policing developments
In other news, police are currently assessing whether nationwide marches can proceed, as ministers face pressure regarding the timing and specifics of the prime minister’s additional measures on protests.
Yesterday, Keir Starmer attended protest marches as the UK terror threat level was raised to “severe” following the Golders Green attack.
Rowley told broadcasters this morning that he was “concerned” about the scale of upcoming protests, and that his force was “looking hard at what conditions and powers we should use”, while justice minister Alex Davies-Jones stated it was “a fact” that pro-Palestine marches had seen “antisemitic activity”.
