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Suella Braverman says anyone vandalising Cenotaph ‘must be jailed faster than feet can touch ground’ | Politics News

The home secretary has said anyone vandalising the Cenotaph on Armistice Day “must be put into a jail cell faster than their feet can touch the ground”.

Speaking exclusively to Sky News, Suella Braverman said she doesn’t want to “undermine” the police process by banning pro-Palestinian protests planned for Armistice Day next weekend, but that behaviour on the marches had been “utterly despicable”.

Police arrested 11 people on Saturday during a fourth week of pro-Palestinian protests in central London.

Pushed on her controversial language after using the term “hate marches”, she said “everybody is entitled to freely express their views” but said there is “no excuse… when that expression crosses the line into hate speech”.

She also confirmed she had never in her life attended a demonstration herself.

Politics latest: Sunak criticises pro-Palestine protests on Armistice Day

Rishi Sunak has voiced concerns about the prospect of pro-Palestine protests on Armistice Day, with the prime minister saying such a move would be “provocative and disrespectful”.

It comes amid reports tens of thousands of demonstrators are planning to take to the streets to call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza on 11 November. Demonstration organisers have pledged to avoid the Whitehall area where the Cenotaph war memorial is located.

Suella Braverman in Greece
Suella Braverman with Greek border guards during a visit to the north eastern Greek border with Turkey in Alexandroupolis to view surveillance facilities and learn how Greek security forces are monitoring the land border with their Turkish neighbours.
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Ms Braverman with Greek border guards during a visit to the northeastern Greek border with Turkey

The home secretary was speaking from the Greek island of Samos, where she has been learning about the government’s approach to illegal migration.

On Friday she visited a 120km long fence at the country’s land border crossing with Turkey, and on Saturday she was taken on patrol with the Hellenic Coast Guard off the coast of Samos.

Nearly a million people crossed into Greece by small boat in 2015, compared with 12,700 last year – fewer than the number of small boat crossings in the English Channel.

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Suella Braverman in Greece