EXCLUSIVE: Israel-Hamas war protests have cost UK police at least £27m in the past year alone

These costs are broken down into opportunity costs, overtime, vehicle costs, catering, mutual aid, expenses, external fleet hire and more.

Other forces were able to answer how much was spent specifically policing pro-Palestine protests.

Ever since the war began after the Hamas-led massacre on October 7, 2023 – in which terrorists killed 1,200 people and took more than 250 hostage – hundreds of thousands of members of the public have taken to protesting each week in London.

But forces from across the UK have also had to foot the bill of the demonstrations.

Between April 2024 and April 2025, Greater Manchester police spent £846,360 on policing the pro-Gaza demonstrations.

Northumbria police estimated they spent £357,350 based on an average £35 per hour per officer – taking into account different ranks and points in the pay scale. The figure includes overtime payments.

Staffordshire police told the JC they spent £681.87 on the protests over the past year, taking into account mainly overtime costs, with some costs for the Apprenticeship Levy as well.

In costs accrued specifically through overtime due to the pro-Gaza demonstrations, North Yorkshire police spent £3,486.24 and Surrey police footed a bill of £2,621.70.

Sussex police, who were unable to respond specifically about pro-Palestine protests, said the force spent £162,920 on all demonstrations related to the conflict in the Middle East, considering business-as-usual costs, as well as overtime and additional costs such as mutual aid and catering.

Lancashire constabulary, calculating only the additional costs accrued by the protests, footed a bill of £30,834 over the past year.

Tracking only the costs accrued through overtime, Cleveland police spent £2,787.82 and Leicestershire police spent £10,653. Cambridgeshire Constabulary, which were only able to record the costs of organised protests that the force had prior knowledge of, spent £6,415.57 over the past year. The cost of instantaneous protests would be included in the “business as usual” costs for those days.

The Police Service of Northern Ireland told the JC they spent £353,765.37 on protests over the past year, including both overtime and duty time costs, while South Wales police spent £527,603 on overtime and other direct incidental expenditure.

Calculating only overtime costs, West Yorkshire police spent £505,942.42 in the past year.

On occasions this year, the police have responded to anxiety within the Jewish community over the location of some protests. In January, a march in central London was redirected after police intervention when the original route was deemed to be too close to Central Synagogue on Shabbat.

In May, the Metropolitan Police moved to stop near-weekly protests on Friday evenings organised by the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network from taking place in Swiss Cottage. Met Chief Superintendent Jason Stewart said: “The law requires us to assess the impact of each individual protest rather than through taking a blanket approach.”

But a protest on the last weekend of Pesach was allowed to pass through a neighbourhood with several synagogues in Westcliff-on-Sea, Essex.

In April, the government announced it was giving the police more powers, in an amendment to the Crime and Policing Bill, to protect places of worship by curbing protests that caused “intimidating levels of disruption”.