U.Ok. police to get higher powers to limit demos

U.Ok. police are to be given higher powers to limit protests as a Minister mentioned repeated large-scale pro-Palestinian demonstrations had precipitated “considerable fear” for the Jewish group.

The authorities initiative follows Thursday’s (October 2, 2025) lethal knife and car-ramming assault on a synagogue within the northwestern metropolis of Manchester.

A professional-Palestinian demonstration in central London went forward on Saturday (October 4) regardless of pleas from Prime Minister Keir Starmer and the capital’s Metropolitan Police to delay it.

The authorities mentioned police can be authorised to contemplate the “cumulative impact” of protests when deciding to impose limits on protesters.

“The right to protest is a fundamental freedom in our country. However, this freedom must be balanced with the freedom of their neighbours to live their lives without fear,” Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood mentioned.

Over 1,000 individuals took half in Saturday’s (October 4) protest in London’s Trafalgar Square with almost 500 individuals arrested for exhibiting supporting for the banned Palestine Action marketing campaign group.

Organisers rejected calls to not collect saying they “stood in solidarity” with the Jewish group over the Manchester assault however that “cancelling peaceful protests lets terror win”.

A day earlier Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy was booed at a vigil for the Jewish victims of the synagogue assault.

“Large, repeated protests can leave sections of our country, particularly religious communities, feeling unsafe, intimidated and scared to leave their homes,” Mahmood mentioned.

“This has been particularly evident in relation to the considerable fear within the Jewish community.”

Questioned by a BBC tv interviewer in regards to the Jewish group’s repeated warnings in regards to the risks they face, Mahmood admitted she was “very worried about the state of community relations in our country”.

The Home Secretary added, talking to Times Radio, that there was a broad “problem of a rise not only in antisemitism but in other forms of hatred as well”.

“There are clearly malign and dark forces running amok across our country,” she mentioned.

Police shot useless assailant Jihad Al-Shamie, a 35-year-old UK citizen of Syrian descent, inside minutes of the alarm being raised on Thursday (October 2).

One particular person died within the assault outdoors the synagogue in north Manchester. Another died after struggling a deadly gunshot, believed by police to have been fired by armed officers as they tackled Shamie.

Three individuals who had been critically injured stay in hospital, together with one who can be believed to have been by accident hit by police hearth.

Counter terrorism police have been granted extra time to detain 4 individuals arrested on suspicion suspicion of terrorism-linked offences over the incident.

The U.Ok. has seen repeated pro-Palestinian demonstrations for the reason that lethal Hamas assault on southern Israel on October 7, 2023 and Israel’s retaliatory motion in Gaza through which tens of 1000’s have died.