Protests and major events in London have cost the Metropolitan Police more than £10 million in one month, according to a senior officer.
Deputy Assistant Commissioner Ade Adelekan revealed ahead of another busy weekend in the capital around 62,829 officer shifts have been extracted from local communities since June.
Pride in London, Notting Hill Carnival, Wembley Stadium concerts and major sporting fixtures all had to be policed.
The force is gearing up for more than 1,000 taking part in a Palestine Action rally and other pro-Gaza and counter-demonstrations on Saturday, plus anti-migrant hotel protest.
Later in September, another organised by far-right activist Tommy Robinson, real name Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, will happen as well as President Donald Trump’s state visit.
DAC Adelekan told a briefing at New Scotland Yard on Friday afternoon: “We accept that this is all part of policing in a capital city, but it does present unique cost and resourcing pressures for the Met.
“All the officers you see out on these busy protest and event days have other core roles and while we have done a lot to limit the number of officers pulled away from frontline duties, it is inevitable that there will still be an impact on other policing priorities.”
A Palestine Coalition demonstration which includes the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Stop the War and other groups will march from Russell Square to Whitehall where speeches will take place on Saturday lunchtime.
PSC director Ben Jamal said: “For 700 days the UK government has been an ally of Israel while it has carried out a barbaric assault on Gaza.
“We will demonstrate tomorrow and next week in our hundreds of thousands to show the British people are not friends of genocidaires, even if our government is.”
Hours later, Defend Our Juries will protest in Parliament Square holding up placards expressing support for terror group Palestine Action.
In London, 138 people have now been charged with terrorism after being arrested at some of the earlier events in late July and August, the Crown Prosecution Service announced on Friday.
Police are warning anyone convicted faces a maximum six months in jail, being barred from jobs in education and banned from visiting the United States, Australia, Japan and European Union countries from 2026.
Detective Chief Superintendent Helen Flanagan, Head of Operations at the Met's Counter Terrorism Command: “We have shown during past demonstrations that the Met is capable of dealing with the extremely large numbers of people being arrested for this offence.
“A large part of that is down to our public order and frontline policing colleagues who have done a fantastic job in dealing with the people on the ground and arresting those suspected of committing offences.”
It comes after six people who are alleged to be members of the DOJ, or working closely with it, appeared at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Thursday to deny terror offences after being alleged to have tried to organise mass gatherings with the aim of rendering the ban on Palestine Action unenforceable.
The charges related to plans for meetings in London, Cardiff and Manchester which were allegedly organised over Zoom meetings in July, August and this month.
Palestine Action was banned as a terror organisation in July after the group claimed responsibility for an action in which two Voyager planes were damaged at RAF Brize Norton on June 20.
The Home Office is set to appeal against the High Court ruling allowing Palestine Action’s co-founder Huda Ammori to proceed with a legal challenge against the Government over the group’s ban.
Ms Ammori took legal action against the department over Home Secretary Yvette Cooper’s decision to proscribe the group under anti-terror laws, which made membership of, or support for, the direct action group a criminal offence punishable by up to 14 years in prison.
On Sunday a national march against anti-Semitism will gather at the junction of Hallam Street and Weymouth Street, north of Oxford Circus, before heading to Whitehall.
Further protests at or near hotels accommodating asylum seekers in London will go ahead despite arrests in both Canary Wharf and West Drayton last weekend.
