James Cleverly backs speaker following Gaza ceasefire debate row – UK politics live
Protesters outside people’s homes ‘unacceptable’, says home secretary
It is “nonsense” for protesters outside MPs’ homes to claim they are not seeking to intimidate, James Cleverly has said.
“Someone saying: ‘I’m standing outside someone’s private house in numbers, but we don’t seek to intimidate’, I’m sorry, that’s clearly nonsense,” the home secretary told the BBC’s Today programme.
“Where a mob of people are outside someone’s private residence, clearly with the intention of distorting their future votes, that is unacceptable and we expect the police to deal with it.”
He said police already have the powers that they need to stop protests outside MPs’ homes and offices, “and we also want them to understand that they have our backing when they use those powers”.
“The only thing that politicians should fear is the ballot box,” Cleverly said.
“It’s incredibly important… that we do not allow a situation to be created where people cannot vote with their belief and conscience because of fear of reprisals.
“The ballot box is where people and organisations should make their views clear.”
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“Someone saying: ‘I’m standing outside someone’s private house in numbers, but we don’t seek to intimidate’, I’m sorry, that’s clearly nonsense,” the home secretary told the BBC’s Today programme.
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“Where a mob of people are outside someone’s private residence, clearly with the intention of distorting their future votes, that is unacceptable and we expect the police to deal with it.”
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He said police already have the powers that they need to stop protests outside MPs’ homes and offices, “and we also want them to understand that they have our backing when they use those powers”.
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“The only thing that politicians should fear is the ballot box,” Cleverly said.
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“It’s incredibly important… that we do not allow a situation to be created where people cannot vote with their belief and conscience because of fear of reprisals.
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“The ballot box is where people and organisations should make their views clear.”
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Rishi Sunak has hit out at the behaviour of protesters who he says are threatening MPs, after warnings that politicians’ safety was put at risk during this week’s chaotic parliamentary debate on Gaza.
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The prime minister said on Friday it was “unacceptable” for MPs to feel intimidated in their jobs, amid an ongoing row over whether the Commons speaker was right to bend parliamentary rules this week in an effort to protect MPs’ safety.
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Sunak told reporters during a tour of north Wales: “It’s simply unacceptable for intimidation or aggressive behaviour to threaten our parliamentary democracy and our freedom of expression.
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“Some of the scenes we’ve been seeing in recent months, particularly antisemitic behaviour, are appalling and unacceptable.”
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Home secretary James Cleverly firmly backed Commons speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle amid criticism of his handling of the Gaza ceasefire debate.
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The senior Cabinet minister told Sky News on Friday:
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I think the speaker has done a fantastic job. I think he’s been a breath of fresh air compared with his predecessor.
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He made a mistake. He’s apologised for the mistake. My view is that I’m supportive of him.
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Cleverly said it was his personal view because the selection of the speaker is “house business” rather than for government ministers to decide.
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Good morning and welcome to the UK politics live blog. We start with news that the home secretary has said he would not “impinge on operational decisions” by the police when asked whether officers should have stopped a controversial pro-Palestinian message being projected onto Parliament.
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The phrase “from the river to the sea” was reportedly beamed onto the building on Wednesday as Gaza protesters descended on Westminster.
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James Cleverly told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme:
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It’s very difficult for me to second-guess the operational nature of this.
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I don’t know where those images were projected from. I don’t know how easy it would have been for the police officers to get there.
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But the fact is they are deeply, deeply offensive words… The implication is the eradication of the state of Israel. And both personally and as a government, we completely reject that.
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He said the operational nature of policing was a matter for chief constables, the police commissioner Mark Rowley and mayor of London Sadiq Khan.
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Cleverly also said that politicians should not make decisions based on “fear or favour”.
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He told Sky News:
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I’ve not had any specific threats brought to me, but we will stay constantly vigilant.
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But the point I would make is ultimately members of parliament and indeed elected officials through all layers of government have got to act without fear or favour.
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They need to be defended and we’re absolutely determined to do that.
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Key events
Rishi Sunak has claimed the public are “feeling that the economy has turned the corner” and “things are getting better”.
Taking questions after a speech at the Welsh Conservative conference in Llandudno on Friday, the prime minister said:
There is a palpable sense out there, regardless of what Keir Starmer might want to say because he’s always keen to talk down Britain, I can tell actually on the ground people are, since the beginning of this year, feeling that the economy has turned the corner.
They do see those green shoots. They can see that things are getting better. Inflation has been more than halved, mortgage rates starting to come down, wages have been rising for six, seven months in a row now.
We just saw today … energy bills significantly down. Consumer confidence, business confidence, again, survey out yesterday, highest it’s been in years. Businesses like yours feeling better about the future.
And that is why it is so important that we stick to our plan.
Sunak decries ‘intimidation’ by protesters amid row over chaotic Gaza vote
Kiran Stacey
Rishi Sunak has hit out at the behaviour of protesters who he says are threatening MPs, after warnings that politicians’ safety was put at risk during this week’s chaotic parliamentary debate on Gaza.
The prime minister said on Friday it was “unacceptable” for MPs to feel intimidated in their jobs, amid an ongoing row over whether the Commons speaker was right to bend parliamentary rules this week in an effort to protect MPs’ safety.
Sunak told reporters during a tour of north Wales: “It’s simply unacceptable for intimidation or aggressive behaviour to threaten our parliamentary democracy and our freedom of expression.
“Some of the scenes we’ve been seeing in recent months, particularly antisemitic behaviour, are appalling and unacceptable.”
Meanwhile, Nigel Farage has urged a potential incoming Labour government to make him ambassador to the US in the “national interest”.
He says he is “half-joking” but also said he would be “ideal” for the role in a future Keir Starmer government.
He told The Sun:
Labour must think very, very hard in the national interest about what they are going to do with an incoming Trump administration. And right at the moment, I think they are ignoring it.
You’ve got to have someone who can actually walk into the Oval Office and talk face to face with an incoming President Trump.
So, half jokingly I could say me, but I can’t see them ever appointing me.
But, I would be ideal for it. I would be, I am being serious, I would be. But they need to think very hard.
It is “unacceptable” for intimidation to threaten democracy, Rishi Sunak has said.
Speaking during a tour of North Wales on Friday, the prime minister was asked about protests outside MPs’ homes.
He told reporters:
I think MPs’ safety is incredibly important. And it’s right that in our society, democracy needs to be able to function smoothly. People need to be able to raise their views and debate things without the fear of being intimidated or indeed attacked.
And that’s why we’re giving police more powers to clamp down on protests.
It’s simply unacceptable for intimidation or aggressive behaviour to threaten our parliamentary democracy and our freedom of expression.
And some of the scenes we’ve been seeing in recent months, particularly antisemitic behaviour, are appalling and unacceptable. That’s why we’re giving the police more powers and I expect them to use them to make sure we clamp down on all of this.
The government will not be “distracted or deterred” from providing compensation to sub-postmasters wronged in the Horizon scandal, James Cleverly has said.
The home secretary was asked about a letter from the Post Office chief executive Nick Read last month telling the government the organisation would stand by the prosecution of more than half the cases of those convicted of fraud.
Cleverly told Sky News:
That letter is not going to divert us from what we know to be the right course of action, which is do the right thing by hard-working people who found themselves, through no fault of their own, being targeted for criminal actions.
So we are relentlessly focused on that, and that exchange won’t change that at all.
Home secretary backs speaker following Gaza ceasefire debate row
Home secretary James Cleverly firmly backed Commons speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle amid criticism of his handling of the Gaza ceasefire debate.
The senior Cabinet minister told Sky News on Friday:
I think the speaker has done a fantastic job. I think he’s been a breath of fresh air compared with his predecessor.
He made a mistake. He’s apologised for the mistake. My view is that I’m supportive of him.
Cleverly said it was his personal view because the selection of the speaker is “house business” rather than for government ministers to decide.
Cleverly says politicians should not make decisions based on ‘fear or favour’
Good morning and welcome to the UK politics live blog. We start with news that the home secretary has said he would not “impinge on operational decisions” by the police when asked whether officers should have stopped a controversial pro-Palestinian message being projected onto Parliament.
The phrase “from the river to the sea” was reportedly beamed onto the building on Wednesday as Gaza protesters descended on Westminster.
James Cleverly told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme:
It’s very difficult for me to second-guess the operational nature of this.
I don’t know where those images were projected from. I don’t know how easy it would have been for the police officers to get there.
But the fact is they are deeply, deeply offensive words… The implication is the eradication of the state of Israel. And both personally and as a government, we completely reject that.
He said the operational nature of policing was a matter for chief constables, the police commissioner Mark Rowley and mayor of London Sadiq Khan.
Cleverly also said that politicians should not make decisions based on “fear or favour”.
He told Sky News:
I’ve not had any specific threats brought to me, but we will stay constantly vigilant.
But the point I would make is ultimately members of parliament and indeed elected officials through all layers of government have got to act without fear or favour.
They need to be defended and we’re absolutely determined to do that.
Read Nore:James Cleverly backs speaker following Gaza ceasefire debate row – UK politics live