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Fears of clashes as Tommy Robinson and Britain First plan far-right protests to ‘defend’ statues this weekend
FAR-RIGHT extremists and football hooligans are planning to counter Black Lives Matter protests and protect monuments this weekend in what police fear is a "perfect storm".
Police officers with full riot gear will be on standby "kitted up and ready to go" amid fears of potential clashes.
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Busloads of fans attached to "firms" at various football clubs are planning to travel hundreds of miles to defend monuments after a number were vandalised during the Black Lives Matter demos.
It comes after a memorial to Queen Victoria in a park in Leeds was defaced with the word "murderer" and "BLM", while protesters scrawled "was a racist" on the statue of wartime Prime Minister Winston Churchill.
Last week one demonstrator was filmed trying to set fire to a Union Jack flag on the Cenotaph on Whitehall.
Millwall fans spent Tuesday afternoon guarding the Churchill statue on Parliament Square, while war veterans stood in front of the cenotaph in Hull yesterday during a Black Lives Matter protest.
'PERFECT STORM'
There are fears hundreds are planning to attend a "patriotic unity" event at Churchill's statue in Westminster on Saturday morning.
The Democratic Football Lads Alliance, a network founded in 2017 that claims to oppose terrorism and conserve British traditions, has told members to defend statues and war memorials.
English Defence League founder Tommy Robinson and far-right group Britain First are among those supporting the protection of monuments.
Ken Marsh, chairman of the Metropolitan Police Federation, said: "There's an awful lot of preparation going on. I have been very critical of the way this has been managed. We have got the perfect storm ahead of us this weekend, we have got planned protests and now Tommy Robinson and his agitators."
He added: "You will see more officers kitted up and ready to go."
The Telegraph reported that more than 30 Public Support Units - each with 24 police officers who have undergone specialist tactical training in public order and riot control - will be deployed.
Sixty-two officers were injured in London last week, including a PC who was thrown from her horse on Whitehall and is still in hospital. There were 135 arrests over three protests that turned violent.
Nick Lowles, chief executive of Hope Not Hate, said: "While the group's stated intention of protecting the war memorials might attract the sympathy of some, let us be in no doubt about their real objective - violence."
In a statement, the Met urged people "not to continue coming out and gathering" for protests during the coronavirus pandemic which "potentially risks their health and also risks taking the virus back to their families."
Unmesh Desai, who is the Labour London Assembly spokesman for policing and crime, has written to all professional football clubs based in London to ask them to condemn the plans by the so-called "football lads alliance".
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The toppling of the statue of slave trader Edward Colston in Bristol on Sunday has led to demands for other historic monuments to be removed.
The statue was pulled down amid worldwide protests triggered by the death of George Floyd.
Mr Floyd died after a white police officer held him down by pressing his knee into his neck for almost nine minutes in Minneapolis on May 25.
A website called "topple the racists" has compiled a list of around 78 statues and other memorials across the UK it argues should be taken down, because they "celebrate slavery and racism".
This includes 19th-century slave owner Sir Thomas Picton, 18th-century colonialist trader Robert Clive and 17th-century merchant Elihu Yale who had links to the slave trade.
Campaigners have also challenged memorials to Sir Robert Peel, founder of the Met Police in London and former prime minister William Gladstone.
The statue of slave owner Robert Milligan was removed from West India Quay in London's Docklands on Tuesday night.
London Mayor Sadiq Khan has also announced a new commission to review the capital's landmarks.
In Oxford, hundreds gathered on Tuesday evening to demand the fall of a statue of Victorian imperialist Cecil Rhodes.
In Edinburgh, a petition has been launched to remove the statue of slave owner Henry Dundas in St Andrew Square and for streets bearing his name to be renamed.
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Essex Police Chief Constable Ben-Julian Harrington said more than 155,000 people across the UK had so far taken part in almost 200 demonstrations.
Some 137 people have been arrested, while others have been fined for breaches of Covid-19 lockdown rules, which prohibit gatherings of more than six people.
Mr Hewitt said anyone who damages a monument or pulls down a statue is committing a criminal offence and police "will seek to bring people to justice".
But he added: "It's not a matter for the police, unless a criminal offence is committed, this is a matter for those people that own or are the guardians of the statues wherever they may be, and dealing with those people who feel very strongly about appropriateness or otherwise of those statues."
Home Secretary Priti Patel is reported to have had a "firm" discussion with Avon and Somerset Chief Constable Andy Marsh about why officers did not intervene when the Colston statue was torn down.
But Mr Harrington, the NPCC lead for public order, said it was up to operational commanders to make decisions on whether officers should step in to stop damage to monuments but said people's safety would be prioritised over property.
He said: "What we will do is have appropriate plans and of course the officers will be there looking to make sure that people don't get hurt in the first instance, trying to protect property if that's the right thing to do, but people come first, making sure officers and those taking part are safe."
Asked what the Prime Minister's message is to people thinking of protesting at the weekend, his spokesman said: "He understands the great strength of feeling but at the same time he had been very clear that any gathering of more than six people would be illegal and would urge people not to take part in protests if they can’t be conducted in a lawful way.
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"The laws are in place to protect public health and seek to control the spread of coronavirus and if people aren't able to follow the rules and any protest are therefore unlawful he would strongly urge people not to take part.
"The PM is very clear that people should not be taking part in illegal marches. In this country it is operational decisions for the police on how to respond to each individual circumstance."
Ex-Scouts defend Baden-Powell statue in Poole amid plans to remove it over ‘Nazi sympathies’
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