Overview
- Using Public Order Act powers, the Met prohibited anyone taking part in UKIP’s planned Whitechapel event from entering the borough of Tower Hamlets on 31 January, with breaches an arrestable offence.
- Senior officer James Harman said UKIP’s presence in Whitechapel would likely provoke a hostile local reaction and that allowing the event there would be reckless given the risk of violence.
- The force stressed the restriction is not an overall ban and said it will work with organisers to identify a less provocative London location, as happened when a similar UKIP plan was moved in October.
- UKIP condemned the decision on social media, alleging bias and describing Tower Hamlets as a “No Go Zone.”
- Conditions were also set for other demonstrations that day, confining Central London Anti‑Fascists to specified pavements in Whitechapel and requiring the Palestine Coalition to form up in Russell Square, follow an agreed route to Whitehall, and finish by early evening.