Top Tory Robert Jenrick has said that Muslim protesters who shout “Allahhu Akbar” in the street should be immediately arrested, as the debate about 'two-tier policing' rumbles on.
Asked about whether he believes there is 'two-tier policing' in the UK, Mr Jenrick said he had been very critical of the police over the past 10 months regarding their handling of pro-Palestine protests since October 7.
He said: “I thought it was quite wrong that someone could shout 'Allahhu Akbar' on the streets of London and not be immediately arrested, or project genocidal chants onto Big Ben, and that person not be immediately arrested.”
Mr Jenrick blasted: “That attitude is wrong!”
However the comments have now sparked backlash from left-wingers and Muslims.
Labor MP Zarah Sultana accused him of Islamophobia and racism over the comments, tweeting: “When we say Islamophobia and racism is normalized and goes unchallenged, this is literally what we're talking about.”
Fellow hard-left MP Apsana Begum echoed: “Islamophobia and racism is so entrenched, it goes unchallenged.”
In another interview this morning, Mr Jenrick rejected findings from a YouGov poll that more than half of Brits say the past 14 years of Tory governments say they hold some responsibility for the riots.
Asked whether he regrets any of the previous government's rhetoric around migration, Mr Jenrick hit back: “Absolutely not. Let me be completely clear, it is the responsibility of elected politicians and political leaders to discuss topics like migration.
“If you or sections of the media want to shut that down, what will happen is that it will lead to the far right and extreme groups rising up. For years I have argued that if parties of the center right or the center left do not discuss migration, do not give voice to legitimate concerns on this issue then we should extreme voices to rise up.”
Shown a clip of him speaking in Parliament earlier this year about Islamist extremists intimidating MPs and British Jews week after week on the streets of London, Mr Jenrick said he was “absolutely right”.
He said: “I think the protests that we were seeing at that time on the streets of London, where we had individuals shouting 'Allahhu Akbar' on Oxford Street, where we had antisemitic slogans like 'from the river to the sea' being broadcast. onto Big Ben itself, that was completely wrong.
“If political leaders like myself do not voice those issues then we're going to go down a very dark road… we mustn't allow these disgraceful riots to close down legitimate public debate about Islamist extremism, extremism of any kind including the far right. , or the migration debate that millions of people care about.”
This morning the head of the Met Police Sir Mark Rowley rejected accusations of two-tier policing as “complete nonsense”.
Responding to the allegations he said: “We have commentators from either end of the political spectrum who like to throw accusations of bias at the police because we stand in the middle, we operate independently under the law without fear or favor.
“And if you've got crazy views over there, you don't like it, and if you've got crazy views over there, you don't like it. We will continue to do that.
“The serious voices who echo those are of more concern to me, because the risk is that they legitimize it, and they legitimize the violence that the officers I'm sending on mutual aid today will face on the streets. They are putting them at risk by suggesting that any of those officers are going out with any intent other than to operate without fear or favor in protecting communities.”