Met police chief denies ‘intervening in politics’ after open letter to Zack Polanski – UK politics live
Morning, welcome to our UK politics blog.
Morning, welcome to our UK politics blog.
The Metropolitan police commissioner Mark Rowley has denied he was “intervening in politics” after he wrote an open letter to Zack Polanski over the way 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 said: “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 said he was “disappointed” that the politician had amplified “inaccurate and misinformed commentary” that “undermines officer confidence to act”.
The public spat comes days before the local elections, with commentators questioning whether Rowley’s letter breached regulations that prohibit police from engaging in political activity.
Rowley denied the letter to Polanski meant he was “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 said: “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.”
In other news, police are assessing if nationwide marches can go ahead, as ministers are pressed on the timing and details of the prime minister’s additional measures on protests.
Yesterday, Keir Starmer vowed to crack down on those “venerating the murder of Jews” at protest marches as the UK terror threat level was raised to “severe” in the wake of 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 claimed it was “a fact” that pro-Palestine marches had seen “antisemitic activity”.
A man has appeared in court charged with the attempted murders of three people during two knife attacks in London.
Essa Suleiman, 45, is accused of stabbing two Jewish men in Golders Green on Wednesday, having already attacked another man over a personal dispute in south London.
The prosecutor Emma Harraway told the court Suleiman had attacked Ishmail Hussein at his home in Southwark. He had then travelled to Golders Green, in north-west London, arriving shortly after 11am, and attacked two Jewish men.
Suleiman appeared in the dock at Westminster magistrates court on Friday to face the charges for the first time. He wore a grey tracksuit and spoke only to confirm his name and address.
The chief magistrate, Paul Goldspring, remanded him in custody and sent the case to the Old Bailey. The next hearing is set for 15 May.
While the Green party has been dealing with the backlash to Zack Polanski’s social media post, they will have been hoping to talk about the party’s policy of introducing a £15-an-hour minimum wage.
Polanski will address a rally in Manchester on Friday evening where he will say Labour’s Employment Rights Act – which the party see as one of their major achievements in government – has been “watered down after pressure from corporate lobbyists”.
The Greens would introduce day-one rights on unfair dismissal as part of a new Employment Rights Act, and full-bans on fire-and-rehire, and zero-hours contracts.
Polanski said his party are the “new workers’ party”. He said: “We will address the massive imbalance in our workplaces and give control back to workers.”
As the May elections creep closer, the leadership speculation at Westminster grows more intense. Is Keir Starmer safe and, if so, for how long?
In her analysis piece below, the Guardian’s political editor Pippa Crerar explores the state of prime minister’s leadership, why discontent is building within Labour and who the most likely challengers could be.
Labour’s flagship rental reforms came into effect in England today, but solicitors say they have been inundated with requests to serve last-minute section 21 no-fault eviction notices before a ban on the practice became law, Jessica Murray reports.
The Renters’ Rights Act, which has been hailed as the biggest change to renting in a generation, bans no-fault evictions, limits rent increases and abolishes fixed-term tenancies.
On the eve of the new rules, solicitors said they were working long hours to keep up with the sudden demand for eviction notices.
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage and Suella Braverman, the former Tory home secretary who is now Reform’s education spokesperson, are on the campaign trail in Hampshire this morning, where they visited the town of Waterlooville.
Farage is facing allegations that he broke parliamentary rules after the Guardian revealed he received a previously undeclared £5m from crypto billionaire Christopher Harborne. The Electoral Commission said it is considering whether to investigate the donation, which Farage insisted was a gift that was given at a time when he had not yet committed to standing as an MP. Braverman has come out to defend him, saying the money was a “private” gift for personal protection.
You can find more on that story here:
Women will be massively underrepresented on ballot papers across the UK next week, campaigners say, with research revealing that almost twice as many men as women are standing as candidates across the local, mayoral and devolved elections.
Democracy campaigners say men of all political stripes are likely to dominate local government, with women’s views on issues from social care to bin collections sidelined by the huge gap between the numbers of male and female candidates.
Across all elections taking place on 7 May, a third of candidates are women and two-thirds are men, with no party achieving gender parity, according to analysis by 50:50 Parliament and Democracy Club shared exclusively with the Guardian.
In local elections in England, which account for the largest number of candidates out of all elections next Thursday, 34% of candidates are female and no party is fielding an equal number of men and women. In the six mayoral elections taking place, 18% of candidates are women; in the Senedd elections, the figure is 38%; and in the Scottish parliament elections it is 36%.
In other news, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said the rise in fuel prices amid the conflict in the Middle East has been driven by wider cost pressures, particularly higher oil prices, rather than retailers increasing prices.
