UK’s top police officer storms out of Cobra meeting about riots and grabs mic

This is the awkward moment the head of the Metropolitan Police stormed out of the government’s Cobra emergency response meeting at Downing Street.

Footage shows Sir Mark Rowley’s snatching a journalist’s microphone cover as he rushes out of Number 10.

Follow our live blog for all the latest updates from the far-right riots

He was being asked about the police response to the violence that has swept over Britain in the last week.

‘Are we going to end two-tier policing sir?’ one of the reporters quizzes him at the entrance.

In response, Sir Mark takes hold of the mic, which then appeared to fall to the ground.

Prime minister Sir Keir Starmer had chaired the Cobra meeting following all the ‘racist and Islamophobic’ riots in the last week.

Ministers and police chiefs descended on Downing Street for the meeting, which will set out a plan to clamp down on further unrest.

Judging from Sir Mark’s dramatic reaction, not all attendees have agreed on one response.

But a spokesperson from the Met Police said the commissioner was simply ‘in a hurry’.

They said: ‘The commissioner had a positive and constructive meeting with the PM 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.

Speaking after the meeting, Sir Keir said a ‘standing army’ of specialist police officers would be set up to deal with rioting and unrest.

He said: ‘There are a number of actions that came out of the meeting. The first is we will have a standing army of specialist public duty officers so that we will have enough officers to deal with this where we need them.

‘The second is we will ramp up criminal justice. There have already been hundreds of arrests, some have appeared in court this morning.

‘I have asked for early consideration of the earliest naming and identification of those involved in the process who will feel the full force of the law.’

The rise of the far-right has so far been the biggest challenge the PM has had to face in the last one month in the post.

Addressed the nation on Sunday, he told ‘thugs’ they would ‘regret’ engaging in ‘far-right thuggery’.

He promised that those involved in unrest would ‘face the full force of the law’.

Meanwhile, home secretary Yvette Cooper said the courts are on ‘stand-by’ to ensure ‘swift justice’.

What is two-tier policing?

Two-tier policing is a phrase used to describe the belief that some protesters and demonstrators are dealt with more harshly than others.

In the last few days, right-wing rioters and right-wing high-profile individuals have spread false claims that ‘two-tier policing’, exists and suggesting that they are being treated less fairly than if left-wing people were staging protests.

However, both members of left and right-wing political parties have dismissed this, with others describing the phrase as a ‘racist dog-whistle’.

Dame Priti Patel, former home secretary and Conservative party member, said the ‘two-tier policing’ claims are ‘not correct’.

She told Times Radio: ‘There is a clear difference between effectively blocking streets or roads being closed, to burning down libraries, hotels, food banks and attacking places of worships.

‘What we have seen is thuggery, violence, racism.’

She added: ‘Those kinds of comments are simply not relevant right now. That is not correct, it is not correct.’

Sir Keir also denied that two-tier policing was being carried out in the UK.

The Prime Minister told broadcasters: ‘There is no two-tier policing.

‘There is policing without fear or favour – exactly as it should be, exactly what I would expect and require.

‘So that is a non-issue.’

Labour councillor for Sheffield City Council Minesh Parekh has meanwhile criticised the reporter for asking the question to Sir Mark.

He said on X: ‘”Two-tier policing” is a racist dogwhistle. If this is your journalistic priority after a week of fascist pogroms you are part of the problem.’

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