UK police now have more power to restrict protests after Manchester synagogue attack

The UK government is giving police more power to restrict protests, specifically targeting the repeated, large pro-Palestinian demonstrations, as these frequent protests have created “considerable fear” for the Jewish community.

This decision follows a deadly attack at a Manchester synagogue on Thursday.

Even after requests from the Prime Minister and police to delay it, a pro-Palestinian demonstration still took place in London on Saturday.

The new rule lets police consider the total effect of repeated protests when deciding to set limits on them. “The right to protest is a fundamental freedom in our country. However, this freedom must be balanced with the freedom of their neighbours to live their lives without fear,” Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said in a statement.

Almost 500 of the over 1,000 participants in Saturday’s protest at Trafalgar Square in London were arrested for supporting the banned group, Palestine Action.

The organisers of the Saturday protest in London defended their decision to proceed, rejecting calls to cancel it by stating that they were standing “in solidarity” with the Jewish community after the Manchester attack and that “cancelling peaceful protests lets terror win.”

Meanwhile, Home Secretary Mahmood expressed deep concern, noting that “large, repeated protests can leave sections of our country, particularly religious communities, feeling unsafe, intimidated and scared to leave their homes,” a fear she said was especially “evident in relation to the considerable fear within the Jewish community.”

She admitted that the current situation had made her “very worried about the state of community relations in our country,” citing a broad increase in both antisemitism and other forms of hatred, and concluding that “malign and dark forces” were active across the UK.

Her remarks followed an incident a day earlier where Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy was booed at a vigil for the synagogue attack victims.

The attack itself occurred on Thursday at a north Manchester synagogue, carried out by the assailant, Jihad Al-Shamie, a 35-year-old British man of Syrian descent, who was shot dead by police.

The attack resulted in two deaths—one person died outside the synagogue, and another died from a gunshot believed to have been fired by police during the confrontation with Shamie.

Three others remain seriously injured, with one also believed to have been accidentally hit by police fire. Separately, counter-terrorism police have received extra time to question four people arrested on suspicion of terrorism-linked offences related to the incident.

The UK has been the site of repeated pro-Palestinian demonstrations since the conflict escalated in October 2023.