Yvette Cooper warns against ‘spiral of disrespect’ between ministers and police

Ms Cooper called the attacks by former home secretary Suella Braverman on the Metropolitan Police last week ‘a disgrace’.

Counter-protesters and police in Parliament Square in central London (PA) (PA Wire)

Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper has said “a spiral of disrespect” cannot be allowed to develop between the Government and the police, following intense political pressure over protest marches.

Speaking at a policing conference in Westminster, Ms Cooper called the attacks by former home secretary Suella Braverman on the Metropolitan Police last week “a disgrace”.

Mrs Braverman took the extraordinary step of writing an article for the Times, accusing the force of showing bias in favour of left-wing protesters.

That was after she had pressed for Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley to ban a pro-Palestine demonstration in central London, which she branded a hate march.

Her successor, James Cleverly, whom Ms Cooper said is likely to take “a very different approach”, is due to speak at the same conference later on Thursday.

Ms Cooper told delegates: “The attacks on you by Suella Braverman were a total disgrace.

“Suella Braverman is not home secretary anymore, rightly…

“But this is actually too important just to move on, to dismiss this as an aberration.

“Because I said repeatedly in the comments that I made on the disgraceful Suella Braverman article, no home secretary ever before would ever have done this.

“And that’s true. But now our home secretary has done this.

“And we cannot let this spiral into a spiral of disrespect between policing and between the Home Office ministers.”

She accused Prime Minster Rishi Sunak of being irresponsible in also putting pressure on the Met over the protests.

“The Prime Minister… also got drawn into her approach, putting public and theatrical pressure on the Met Commissioner for the sake of headlines. I believe that was irresponsible.

“The policing minister also tried to defend the claim that police pick favourites. That is not good enough.”

The Labour shadow home secretary also called for the renewed monitoring of Islamophobic and antisemitic hate incidents, which fall under the criminal threshold, due to increased tensions over the conflict in Gaza.

She also said that the threshold for offences for stirring up hatred should be re-examined.