THE chief of the Metropolitan Police has been recorded grabbing a journalist’s microphone and throwing it on the ground while leaving an emergency Cobra meeting this morning.
Mark Rowley, the head of the Met Police, was exiting a Cobra meeting at Whitehall, in London, when he was approached by a Sky News journalist.
The police chief was asked live on air if the Met is “going to end two-tier policing,” at which point he grabbed the microphone and threw it on the ground while hastily leaving the building.
Sky News’s Tamara Cohen said Rowley had “clearly responded very angrily” when asked the question by her colleague as the police chief quickly made his way down the street.
The question around “two-tier policing” follows Reform's claims that Black Lives Matter and pro-Palestine protesters had been treated more “favourably” by officers than those who have attended far-right rallies.
Rowley had been attending the emergency meeting at 10 Downing Street after a weekend of violence across England saw rioters try and storm hotels housing asylum seekers.
BREAKING: Commissioner of the Met Police Sir Mark Rowley has been seen leaving the Cabinet Office in Westminster. As he left, he was asked a question about two-tier policing, but Sir Mark grabbed the journalist's microphone and dropped it to the ground.https://t.co/sSlOq3trXp pic.twitter.com/tbcyehnADf
— Sky News (@SkyNews) August 5, 2024
There were reports of libraries being burned down while hotels, food banks and places of worship were also attacked as a string of far-right rallies took place across the country.
Former SNP MP Angus MacNeil (below) posted on social media condemning the police chief's actions as he said: “In atmosphere of riots in parts of England - the Met Police Chief loses control and wantonly damages a journalist's microphone.
“What a breakdown in, perhaps law, but certainly order - by the Chief of London's police!!
“Just looks like vandalism on Sky News.”
At the weekend a large crowd gathered outside a mosque in Middlesbrough while anti-immigration rioters smashed the windows of the Holiday Inn Express in Rotherham and started fires.
A similar incident happened at a Holiday Inn hotel in Tamworth where hundreds of masked people were seen attacking the building where they believed asylum seekers were being housed.
A spokesperson for the Met Police said: “The Commissioner had a positive and constructive meeting with the Prime Minister and partners across government and policing.
“He was in a hurry to return to New Scotland Yard to take action on the agreed next steps.”
