Credit;PA Stock image
Thousands of lockdown protestors on Saturday amid criticism of the police’s handling of the Sarah Everard vigil last week.
Thousands of protesters, including Piers Corbyn and Laurence Fox, marched through the streets of London.
The Met said on yesterday it was aware of several protests planned for Saturday in breach of lockdown rules banning gatherings of more than two people from different households.
The force said a “significant policing operation” would be in place in central London throughout the day
“Those gathering will be encouraged to return home, if they do not, they face necessary and proportionate enforcement action,” it said.
“This could be a fixed penalty notice, or arrest.
The protest started at Hyde Park and continued onto Oxford Street, despite organised protests breaching lockdown measures.
Taking to Twitter, the Met Police said: “Met officers are engaging with those gathering around Piccadilly and other areas of central London to protest, explaining that we remain in a public health crisis and urging people to disperse or go home.”
It comes as more than 60 MPs and peers have signed a letter warning that allowing the police to criminalise people for protesting is “is not acceptable and is arguably not lawful”.
Signatories include the Tory MPs Sir Charles Walker, Steve Baker, Sir Christopher Chope and Sir Desmond Swayne and the Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey.
“Perhaps the women who attended last week’s vigil for a murdered young woman should have taken off their masks and pretended to be an anti-Lockdown protest if they didn’t want to be violently broken up by the Met Police. Current protest marching through London.”
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