Philp cited a post that appeared on the official Metropolitan Police X/ Twitter following the protest saying that “the word jihad has a number of meanings” and that its “specialist” officers had not “identified any offences”.
Philp said he told Rowley was “completely unacceptable” that such chants had been permitted. “I think calling for armed jihad is calling for is calling for violent insurrection, that is completely unacceptable, and that is the kind of thing that should lead to arrests. And I said that to Mark Rowley privately at the time,” he said said.
Regarding calls for the proscription of Palestine Action, Philp noted said he would “study the legislation carefully to see if that threshold appears met”.
However, he added: “They should certainly, in my view, be systemically dismantled because they are organising criminal activity. It's not enough just to prosecute the individuals who commit each separate act of criminal damage or vandalism or intimidation.”
Asked if he had had any discussions about how to dismantle the organisation while he was in government, Philp, who served as policing minister between October 2022 and July’s general election, said he would not comment on “confidential” and “operational discussions”.
The shadow home secretary said that he understood “how traumatic, particularly the last 12 months, have been for the Jewish community, being targeted in the way that they have”.
He would “always speak out where the Jewish community are persecuted,” he said. “I will always be asking and demanding that the police show zero tolerance towards people who express religious or racial hatred, who commit acts of antisemitism, or who express support for proscribed terrorist organisations, or organisations like Palestine Action, who engage in systemic and planned criminal activity targeting Jewish or Israeli organisations.”
Reflecting on the violence against Israelis in Amsterdam, Philp said that should similar scenes take place in the UK, he would “expect the police to clamp down on it instantly and with overwhelming force, and I would expect anyone involved in it to be immediately arrested and prosecuted with the same force that we saw when those far-right riots happened in August.
“If people are committing criminal offences like that, if people are committing acts of antisemitic violence, once they've been prosecuted – if they have no right to be in a country – they should certainly be deported.”
Philp did not say whether he agreed with former Conservative home secretary Suella Braverman who called the pro-Palestine rallies “hate marches”.
He said that while “people have right to protest, no one has the right to intimidate or harass other citizens, including the Jewish community”, before adding: “I would like to see the police having zero tolerance for harassment and intimidation and antisemitism.
"And anyone who incites racial hatred, anyone who expresses support for a prescribed terrorist organisation, including Hamas and Hezbollah, should be arrested and prosecuted.”
Moreover, according to Philp, police forces should not be afraid to arrest people on the spot.
Commenting on the criticism the Metropolitan Police has received for occasionally acting retrospectively against people on pro-Palestine marches, Philp said that while the police would “give their own account of the reasons for their operational choices… The police should enforce the law immediately… without fear or favour.”
The former policing minister defended his party’s record in government when it came to dealing with the protests and protecting the Jewish community: “We changed the law in some areas. We proscribed Hamas, Hezbollah and Hizb-ut-Tahrir.”
The Croydon South MP went on: “We tightened the law to make sure that the police have the legal powers they needed and when these marches were happening, we obviously met the police to strongly encourage a response that made sure the Jewish community were protected properly, and synagogues were being properly protected as well.”
Adjusting to his new role in opposition, the shadow home secretary revealed that he had “exchanged courteous text messages” with Home Secretary Yvette Cooper.
His medium-sized office in the Palace of Westminster, where he spoke to the JC, was a far cry from what he was used to in government. He said: “I was responsible for a budget of about £22bn and around 400,000 people, and you go into opposition and suddenly – instead of being able to do things – you're simply commenting on other people doing things.”
That was something he found frustrating, he said, adding: “I ran businesses before I came into Parliament, and then I was a minister for five years. I like doing things, and I came into politics to get things done” which is why he was “motivated to make sure that we win the next election.”
The scale of that task is not lost on Philp: “We lost the last election quite badly. People were frustrated about elements of our record in government”, he said, adding: “We need to win back their trust by demonstrating we've listened.”
Shadow home secretary Chris Philp (right), alongside Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch (wearing white) and shadow foreign secretary Priti Patel (left).[Missing Credit]
But it is a task he thinks new Tory leader Kemi Badenoch is more than suited to carry out: “She's a conviction politician. She says what she believes in, which is very refreshing. She's an authentic conservative, which one of the reasons I supported her, and we can see already in the opinion polls she's taken, she's taken the lead over Keir Starmer already.”
