Ban Al Quds Day, says minister

Sackman said a decision about whether the rally should go ahead rested with the home secretary and police.

“I don’t want to see marches and the views expressed in this go ahead,” she said.

“The decision’s not for me, but I’ve made my views very clear,” she went on.

Later on Tuesday, the minister told LBC that marchers “shouldn’t be on the streets of London calling for hate and hostility against this country. That’s thoroughly anti-British.”

In 2024, while in opposition, Sackman also called for the march to be banned, urging the then home secretary to “take whatever actions are necessary” to outlaw the march.

For more than a decade, critics have called for Al Quds Day to be banned in London, particularly after previous demonstrations featured Hezbollah flags before the group was fully proscribed in the UK, alongside placards calling for the destruction of Israel.

A march can only be banned if police assess that it would lead to serious public disorder that cannot be prevented through conditions or restrictions.

According to reports in The Times, in London, the Metropolitan Police informs the mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, if it seeks a ban – although permission from the mayor is not required.

It is understood that the Met and the Home Office are discussing an option that would prevent the Al Quds march from parading through the capital but allow organisers to hold a static protest outside the Home Office, where the group is due to meet ahead of the planned rally.

Sackman’s intervention follows a letter from 90 cross-party MPs and peers urging the home secretary to halt the march. If the rally proceeds, they said, it would send an “unmistakably troubling message”.

Jewish groups have also called for the London march to be prohibited.

A spokesperson for the Board of Deputies said: “Al Quds Day is in poor taste every year, but at a time when Iran is launching attacks on British bases and allies it seems extraordinary that this should be allowed to go ahead. Those organising it should certainly be attracting the close attention of the authorities.”

Al Quds Day, named after the Arabic word for Jerusalem, takes place annually in London during Ramadan. 

The event, described by the government’s former anti-extremism tsar Lord Walney as an “anti-Israel jamboree”, is organised by the Islamic Human Rights Commission (IHRC), which is under investigation by the Charity Commission over funding concerns.

A government spokesperson said the march was “a matter for the Metropolitan Police […] who have also been extremely clear that there are a range of robust laws in place to deal with threatening abuse or harassing behaviour or incitement to hatred.

“We have been extremely clear that we expect the police to use the full force of the law,” the spokesperson added.