Rishi Sunak accused of ‘hysterical nonsense’ after claiming ‘mob rule is replacing democratic rule’ – UK politics live

Good morning. When Rishi Sunak (eventually) decided to take action against Lee Anderson after he claimed that the city of London, and Sadiq Khan, its mayor, were under the control of Islamists, people asked why he was not prepared to discpline, or even criticise, the former home secretary Suella Braverman, who had said something even stronger. “The truth is that the Islamists, the extremists and the anti-Semites are in charge now,” she said in a Telegraph article. It was assumed that Sunak did not want to pick a fight with her because she has too much support within the party.

Now it seems there is another explanation: Sunak did not criticise Braverman because he broadly agrees with her. That is the implication of a No 10 briefing last night, which included this quote from what Sunak told a policing roundtable earlier in the afternoon. He said:

There is a growing consensus that mob rule is replacing democratic rule. And we’ve got to collectively, all of us, change that urgently.

We can make a start today with the new Democratic Policing Protocol …

We simply cannot allow this pattern of increasingly violent and intimidatory behaviour which is, as far as anyone can see, intended to shout down free debate and stop elected representatives doing their job.

That is simply undemocratic.

So it’s right that the protocol commits to additional patrols, provides clarity that protests at elected representatives’ homes should be treated as intimidatory.

And we’ve provided additional funding for protective security.

But we also need to demonstrate more broadly to the public that you will use the powers you already have, the laws that you have.

Campaigners and MPs have dismissed the claim that “mob rule is replacing democratic rule” as hypberbolic, alarmist and illiberal – and, frankly, just wrong. It is also an unusual electoral gambit, given that you might argue letting the country descend into “mob rule” would not reflect well on the political party in charge over the past 14 years.

This is from Tom Southerden, law and human rights director at Amnesty International UK.

Talk of ‘mob rule’ wildly exaggerates the issue and risks delegitimising the rights of peaceful protest.

Freedom of expression and assembly are absolutely fundamental rights in any free and fair society. The UK has undergone a major crackdown on protest rights in recent years, with peaceful protest tactics being criminalised and the police being given sweeping powers to prevent protests taking place.

This is from the SNP MP John Nicholson.

Beyond startling. Hysterical, fear mongering nonsense. There is no “mob rule” in England.

Unless one regards the Tory Party as an unruly mob. Probably consensus on that.

And this is from the Labour MP Chris Bryant.

Take me through this. Sunak thinks we have mob rule. He’s the prime minister. So, like, he’s in charge, yeah?

Here is Rajeev Syal’s overnight story about the row.

I will post more reaction shortly.

Here is the agenda for the day.

9.30am: Oliver Dowden, deputy PM and a Cabinet Office minister, takes questions in the Commons.

10.30am: The report into the circumstances that allowed Sarah Everard to be murdered by a serving Metropolitan police officer, Wayne Couzens, will be published. James Cleverly, the home secretary, is due to make a statement to MPs about the outcome of the inquiry, carried out by Elish Angiolini, at around 11.30am.

11.30am: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.

After 12.30pm: Tom Tugendhat, the security minister, is expected to make a Commons statement on the Defending Democracy Policing Protocol.

Also, in Rochdale people have started voting in the byelection. Polls will close at 10pm, and the result is due in the early hours tomorrow morning.

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