Senior royals sombre at Remembrance Sunday service, a day after chaos broke out at the same site
Kate was among the senior royals to make an appearance at London’s famous war memorial – 24 hours after it was swamped by chaos.
The senior members of Britain’s royal family cut sombre figures as they attended a Remembrance Sunday service in the heart of London.
King Charles III, his heir Prince William and Princess Anne all took part in a service at the Cenotaph in Whitehall on Sunday morning, 24 hours after chaos broke out at the famous war memorial, with nationalist protesters attacking police.
Queen Camilla and Princess Catherine watched from a balcony that overlooked the ceremony.
The King laid a wreath at the foot of the Cenotaph and led the United Kingdom in observing two minutes of silence at 11am. William also laid a wreath, formed of poppies.
The event was peaceful and dignified – a welcome change from the atmosphere on Armistice Day, when far-right groups descended on London in an attempt to confront a huge, concurrent march of pro-Palestinian protesters.
The protest had been a source of some political controversy in the week-long build-up, with Britain’s Home Secretary Suella Braverman (the approximate equivalent of our home affairs minister) labelling pro-Palestinian demonstrations “hate marches”, and criticising London’s Metropolitan Police for, in her view, being too soft on them.
“I do not believe that these marches are merely a cry for help for Gaza. They are an assertion of primacy by certain groups – particularly Islamists,” Ms Braverman wrote midweek.
She argued the police were “playing favourites” and were biased in favour of left-leaning protests, such as those in the name of Black Lives Matter, as opposed to white nationalist or anti-Covid lockdown demonstrations.
Ms Braverman also raised concerns that the march, scheduled as it was for the same weekend as Armistice Day, could lead to war monuments such as the Cenotaph being vandalised.
As it happened, the pro-Palestinian march’s route went nowhere near the Cenotaph, and proceeded without violence or vandalism – though some individuals among the crowd of about 300,000 are being investigated for holding anti-Semitic signs, wearing pro-Hamas clothing or confronting members of the public.
The police guarding the Cenotaph were, in the end, forced to deal with nationalist counter-protesters, who said their motive was to protect the site. The counter-protesters clashed with law enforcement, pelted projectiles at the cops, and disrupted the Armistice Day service with chanting – though they never made it all the way to the monument.
There were smaller incidents with police throughout the day as some among the counter-protesters sought to confront the main march, and were denied access to its route.
Police arrested 126 people, most of them from the confrontation near the Cenotaph. They have since released photos of people from the main march who are suspected of committing hate crimes or supporting Hamas, which is designated a terrorist organisation by the UK government. Police want the public’s help identifying these suspects.
As the day ended, the Met issued a lengthy statement explaining its handling of the duelling protest groups.
“Today’s operation took place in unique circumstances, against a backdrop of conflict in the Middle East, on Armistice Day and following a week of intense debate about protesting and policing. These all combined to increase community tensions,” Assistant Commissioner Matt Twist said.
“The extreme violence from right-wing protesters towards the police today was extraordinary and deeply concerning. They arrived early, stating they were there to protect monuments, but some were already intoxicated, aggressive and clearly looking for confrontation.
“Abuse was directed at officers protecting the Cenotaph, including chants of, ‘You’re not English anymore.’ This group were largely football hooligans from across the UK and spent most of the day attacking or threatening officers who were seeking to prevent them from being able to confront the main march.
“Many in these groups were stopped and searched and weapons including a knife, baton and knuckleduster were found, as well as Class A drugs. Thanks to the considerable efforts of our officers, who put themselves in harm’s way, nobody was able to reach the Cenotaph, which was protected at all times.
“Nine officers were injured during the day, two requiring hospital treatment with a fractured elbow and a suspected dislocated hip. Those officers were injured on Whitehall as they prevented a violent crowd from getting to the Cenotaph while a remembrance service was taking place.
“While the Palestine Solidarity Campaign march did not see the sort of physical violence carried out by the right wing, we know that for London’s Jewish communities, whose fears and concerns we absolutely recognise, the impact of hate crime and in particular anti-Semitic offences is just as significant.
“At the end of the march, we once again saw breakaway groups behaving in an intimidating manner. Officers intercepted a group of 150 who were wearing face coverings and firing fireworks. Arrests were made after some of the fireworks struck officers in the face.
“There were also a number of serious offences identified in relation to hate crime and possible support for proscribed organisations during the protest that we are actively investigating.
“Locating and intercepting suspects in a crowd of that size will always be challenging, but we were further limited in our ability to do so due to the number of officers we had to deploy, from early in the day, in response to the violence from right-wing groups.”
He said he was proud of the police force’s efforts, given how challenging the circumstances of the day had been.
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