The former Deputy Assistant Commissioner of the Met Police has said banning the pro-Palestine march could lead to a riot.
Speaking to GB News, Stephen Roberts said: “What we don’t have and what the Commissioner has said very clearly that he doesn’t have is intelligence to suggest disorder of a very serious scale.
“[Banning a protest] is not something that’s done lightly. I think It’s only been done once in the last couple of decades that marches have been banned, and he’s confident that with the forces he’s got at his disposal, this can be placed safely and in an orderly way.
“Those who want to cause disorder are very unlikely to be deterred by any sort of ban now.
“What would happen would be that the police will be faced with the same event, the same disorder that they would have to deal with irrespective of the ban.
“The only people this ban would affect are those who want to demonstrate peacefully.
”I’m afraid, arresting something like tens of thousands of demonstrators – that’s not going to happen. It’s simply not possible.
“You need four or five officers per individual and The Met and indeed the police service nationally would struggle to deal with that.
“What you’d end up with is a riot and that’s above all what the service needs to prevent.”
