Metropolitan Police

Labour reports alleged Farage hack to security officials after Reform leader fails to do so

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https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/may/29/labour-inquiry-nigel-farage-russia-phone-hack-donation-reform-uk

Nigel Farage initially claimed he was given the money to cover security costs. Photograph: Toby Melville/Reuters

Request follows claims actors linked to Moscow accessed Reform UK leader’s data and leaked information over £5m donation

Labour has reported the alleged hacking of Nigel Farage’s phone to police and government cybersecurity officials after the Reform UK leader failed to do so himself.

The Labour chair, Anna Turley, has asked the Metropolitan police and the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) to investigate Farage’s claims that his phone was compromised by hostile actors linked to Russia.

Reform has suggested the Guardian’s revelation that Farage was given a £5m donation from the Thailand-based cryptocurrency billionaire Christopher Harborne originated from material leaked from his phone, email and bank accounts. The party said last weekend it believed his information had been obtained by “hostile actors, almost certainly linked to Moscow”.

Reform said it had reported the matter to “the relevant authorities”, without specifying which ones. Labour challenged the party to refer the case to the NCSC, but it is understood that had not happened by Thursday afternoon.

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https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/may/29/labour-inquiry-nigel-farage-russia-phone-hack-donation-reform-uk

dizzy: I suspect that this may be Farage’s downfall.

Nigel Farage blames the Muzzies.
Nigel Farage blames the Muzzies.

Continue ReadingLabour reports alleged Farage hack to security officials after Reform leader fails to do so

Anti-war groups call for Met chief to resign

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/anti-war-groups-call-met-chief-resign

 Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley gives a statement outside Charing Cross police station, London, after a High Court challenge over the Met Police’s use of live facial recognition (LFR) technology was dismissed, April 21, 2026

ANTI-WAR groups have launched a letter campaign for the resignation of Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley after “openly lying” about Palestine protesters.

Signed by more than 1,300, the letter to London Mayor Sadiq Khan, Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood, and Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime chief executive Rena Laigie, warned that “Rowley must go.”

Sir Mark claimed that the pro-Palestine march on May 16, which coincided with a far-right demonstration, posed a threat to the public and that it deliberately marched past synagogues.

Stop the War Coalition and other organisers quickly debunked the statements and demanded corrections.

“On 16 May, Mark Rowley allowed a far-right hate march led by known fascist Stephen Yaxley-Lennon to go to Parliament while barring the Palestine movement from the political centre of London,” the letter reads.

“The Metropolitan Police has failed to act on incidents of Islamophobia and incitement to violence on the far-right demo, while downplaying the size of the Palestine mobilisation.

“Commissioner Rowley’s role as a politically neutral head of the Metropolitan Police has become untenable. We call on Rowley to resign his post immediately.”

The letter can be signed on actionnetwork.org.

The Met Police declined to comment.

https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/anti-war-groups-call-met-chief-resign

Continue ReadingAnti-war groups call for Met chief to resign

Morning Star calls on London Mayor to sack Met Police boss Mark Rowley

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London Metropolitan Police Commissioner Mark Rowley. Image by Katie Chan, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license via wikimedia.
London Metropolitan Police Commissioner Mark Rowley. Image by Katie Chan, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license via wikimedia.

The Morning Star is calling on London Mayor Sadiq Khan to sack Met Police boss Mark Rowley

Morning Star Editorial: Sadiq Khan must sack Mark Rowley

MARK ROWLEY is fast becoming a menace to democracy in Britain. The country’s most powerful police officer is daily transgressing the limits — on partisanship, on political interference, on responsibility to all citizens — which have traditionally bounded the public interventions of leading state officials.

Of course, those limits have often been honoured in the breach.  But the Metropolitan Police Commissioner has discarded all appearances of impartiality and, indeed, truthfulness.

It has long been clear that he has a special animus for the Palestine solidarity movement. He has sought to restrict its demonstrations on the most specious grounds and arrest its organisers for entirely peaceful and responsible conduct.

After the most notorious of such crackdowns, on the demonstration in January 2025, Rowley hastened to the Board of Deputies of British Jews, which had been pushing for protest curbs, to receive an ovation from them the very next day.

By contrast, he has consistently refused to meet the organisers of the protests. He has been zealous in arresting peaceful objectors to the Palestine Action proscription.

Now he is deploying direct falsehoods in his attempt to rationalise a still more severe crackdown. He has accused the organisers of the huge demonstrations against Israel’s genocide of repeatedly seeking to march past synagogues.

That is a lie, as Rowley knows. The campaign has never sought to march past synagogues nor protest outside them in any way. Had they done so, it would indeed have been a matter of concern.

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Continues at Morning Star Editorial: Sadiq Khan must sack Mark Rowley

Continue ReadingMorning Star calls on London Mayor to sack Met Police boss Mark Rowley

Met Police Commissioner Mark Rowley accused of making “false claims and accusations” against anti-war protestors, correction requested

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The Palestine Coalition has written to the Metropolitan Police Commissioner calling on him to retract his claims that they “set out with an intent to march near synagogues”. The letter describes these claims as “incomprehensible and defamatory” and urges a “speedy … retraction.”

The letter

Dear Mark Rowley

We are very concerned to see that you have publicly stated that the organisers’ initial suggestion for the Palestine marches have ‘involved walking by a synagogue’ and that this sends a message that ‘feels like antisemitism’. These claims are incomprehensible and defamatory.

Our first route suggestion for the next demonstration to commemorate the Nakba, made in writing on 18 December last year, was for a march from Embankment to Whitehall, via Westminster and Waterloo bridges, a route which we have used at least twice before and on which there are no synagogues.

After three months of silence we finally were told by your officers that this route was disallowed on the grounds that Tommy Robinson’s far right demonstration – a real hate march – was inexplicably going to be granted the whole political centre of London, and that we would have to march elsewhere.

Our second suggestion, made after much protest, was that we march from the Israeli Embassy via Knightsbridge to Trafalgar Square – again, a route that does not go past a synagogue, and one previously agreed by the police.This too has been disallowed, and a shorter route has been arbitrarily imposed.

The truth is that at no point have we ever requested to ‘walk by’ a synagogue on any of our marches. We have no interest in doing so. Police recordings of our meetings with you will confirm this.

We can and will provide the email evidence to back up these facts. It is completely unacceptable for a senior public official to make these false claims and accusations, which can only raise the level of tension in the current situation.

We urge a speedy public retraction of your statement and the accompanying scurrilous claim of antisemitism.

Yours sincerely

The Palestine Coalition

Palestine Solidarity Campaign
Palestinian Forum of Britain
Stop the War Coalition
Friends of Al-Aqsa
Muslim Association of Britain
Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament04 May 2026

Continue ReadingMet Police Commissioner Mark Rowley accused of making “false claims and accusations” against anti-war protestors, correction requested

Police should not be above scrutiny, Polanski says over Golders Green post

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/police-should-not-be-above-scrutiny-polanski-says-over-golders-green-post

THE police should not be above scrutiny, Zack Polanski has said, amid a political furore over a post he shared about officers’ behaviour during the Golders Green stabbings.

The Green Party leader also hit out at Metropolitan Police chief Sir Mark Rowley – who wrote an open letter criticising the politician over the repost – saying the commissioner’s move was not “an appropriate way to do politics.”

Mr Polanski retweeted an X post which accused officers of kicking the suspect in the north-west London attack in the head after he had already been incapacitated.

He has faced criticism, including from Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, who branded him “disgraceful” and “not fit to lead any political party.”

Mr Polanski told Sky News: “I think you can both recognise the bravery of officers who run towards incidents that most of us, including myself, would certainly want to run away from – and find the appropriate forum to say that no-one, especially the police, should be above scrutiny.

“The reason why I’ve apologised is I accept that wasn’t the appropriate forum.”

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Continues at https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/police-should-not-be-above-scrutiny-polanski-says-over-golders-green-post

Continue ReadingPolice should not be above scrutiny, Polanski says over Golders Green post