Sir Mark Rowley has broken his silence after he was filmed grabbing a journalist’s microphone and throwing it to the ground after leaving a COBRA meeting.
The Met Police commissioner’s move sparked criticism after the incident in Whitehall, London, on Monday morning (August 5).
Scotland Yard issued a statement this evening in which Sir Mark said: “This morning I was part of a positive and constructive COBRA meeting with the Prime Minister about our collective response to hateful behaviour and violent disorder across the country.
“There’s been a story running all day about my exit from the meeting. This is a distraction from the critical events we are dealing with.
“It was agreed the Prime Minister would provide an update afterwards and it was not my place to speak publicly. In an effort to move a microphone out of my path I’m sorry that I knocked it to the floor. That was never my intention.
“We remain focused on the critical and urgent matters at hand.”
The microphone grab came after a Sky News reporter asked Sir Mark if he was “going to end two-tier policing”, in reference to claimed raised by some that right-wing and left-wing protests are handled differently.
London’s top cop reached towards the microphone, grabbed part of it and threw it to the ground before leaving without saying a word.
A Met Police spokesperson said previously the Commissioner had a positive and constructive meeting with Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and partners in Government and across policing.
They added: “He was in a hurry to return to New Scotland Yard to take action on the agreed next steps.”
The COBRA meeting brought together ministers and police chiefs at the Cabinet Office in Westminster after a sixth day of disorder on Sunday (August 4) saw rioters clash with police and storm hotels housing asylum seekers.
Its purpose was to allow the Government to set out a response to the violent unrest which has broken out across the country in the wake of the Southport stabbings last Monday (July 29).
Meanwhile, the prime minister has rejected claims of “two-tier policing” after Reform UK leader Nigel Farage suggested the riots have been dealt with more harshly than other recent unrest and protests.
The PM flatly denied Mr Farage’s claims as a “non-issue” and insisted policing was carried out “without fear or favour”.
In a statement calling for Parliament to be recalled from its summer recess, the MP for Clacton-on-Sea said the “impression of two-tier policing” had “become widespread”.
Sir Keir, speaking after the emergency COBRA meeting, responded: “There is no two-tier policing. There is policing without fear or favour – exactly as it should be, exactly what I would expect and require. So that is a non-issue.”
Former home secretary, Dame Priti Patel, also rubbished Mr Farage’s claims. She told Times Radio: “There is a clear difference between effectively blocking streets or roads being closed, to burning down libraries, hotels, food banks and attacking places of worships. What we have seen is thuggery, violence, racism.”
She added: “Those kinds of comments are simply not relevant right now. That is not correct, it is not correct.”
