The Metropolitan Police has been accused of “misleading” the Policing Minister over violent placards at last weekend’s mass trans rights protests in London.
Officers told Dame Diana Johnson that no threatening signs were displayed at Saturday’s demonstration in Parliament Square, leading her to insist in interviews that there was no evidence the law had been broken.
In fact, several threatening placards were visible at the protest.
These included two placards with hangmen and slogans such as “the only good terf is a _ _ _ _ one” implying gender-critical feminists should die.
Another urged opponents to perform a “DIY lobotomy” on themselves, while one more appeared to show bullet holes alongside the message: “I will make you listen.”
Chris Philp, the Shadow Policing Minister, has now described the Met’s “misleading” briefing as “deeply alarming”.
He warned that any suggestion of unequal treatment of protesters risked reigniting a row over “two-tier policing.”
The Met initially said it had reviewed images of threats against women posted on social media and found they were either old, from other parts of Britain or not criminal.
But the force retracted this claim after The Telegraph showed it evidence that threatening placards were indeed from the London protest.
The Met is now reviewing the images, speaking to witnesses and examining CCTV footage