James Cleverly says politicians should not make decisions based on ‘fear or favour’ – UK politics live

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.