UK police question Labour ex-chief Corbyn over anti-Israel march; 77 arrested, 9 charged

LONDON, United Kingdom — Former leader of Britain’s Labour party Jeremy Corbyn was questioned under caution by police on Sunday over his participation in an anti-Israel, pro-Palestinian rally the previous day that developed into a clash with police.

Also questioned was former senior Labour party member John McDonnell, who, like Corbyn, is now an independent lawmaker in the House of Commons.

Both men voluntarily agreed to be questioned, the BBC reported.

Officers charged nine people with public order offenses after dozens were arrested at the protest in the British capital, the London Metropolitan Police said Sunday.

More than 70 people were arrested at Saturday’s march after what police called a “coordinated effort to breach” protest conditions, including the perimeter of the rally which was meant to be static.

Among those charged was Corbyn’s brother Piers Corbyn.

The march, organized by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, had initially planned to gather around the corner from the Central Synagogue, an Orthodox congregation founded more than 150 years ago.

From there it was to march towards Whitehall, the British government district. Police refused to permit that plan and instead approved only a static demonstration at another location.

Instead of remaining in place at Portland Place, near the headquarters of the BBC, some demonstrators broke through a police line and marched to Trafalgar Square, the Met said in a post to social media platform X.

The group that forced its way through the police line is now held at the north west corner of Trafalgar Square.

Anyone in that group should now disperse and leave the area. Anyone remaining in breach of the conditions, or inciting further breaches, will be arrested. pic.twitter.com/kzPf7Lu786

— Metropolitan Police (@metpoliceuk) January 18, 2025

Corbyn, responding to the police statement, said it was “not an accurate description of events at all.”

He claimed that, along with other speakers, he had coordinated with police to move to Trafalgar Square “to lay flowers in memory of children in Gaza who had been killed.”

“This was facilitated by the police. We did not force our way through,” Corbyn wrote.

Protest organizers have denied an “organized” breach of conditions and accused officers of heavy-handedness in their policing of the demonstration.

Of the 77 arrested, 25 have been released on bail while 48 remain in custody.

Those charged are due to appear at London’s Westminster Magistrates Court “in the coming days,” police said.

“Yesterday we saw a deliberate effort, including by protest organizers, to breach conditions,” said police commander Adam Slonecki on Sunday.

“We will continue to work through CCTV footage, videos from social media and our body worn cameras so we can make further arrests and bring forward charges where we identify criminality.”

Among those charged was Christopher Nineham, 62, the vice chair of the Stop the War Coalition (SWC), one of the organizers of the demonstration.

Protest organizers accused the police of arresting Nineham “violently and for no apparent reason” in a statement on X.

“At no stage was there an organized breach of the conditions imposed by the police,” the organizers said, calling the arrests a “direct assault on freedom of assembly and democracy.”

The Campaign Against Antisemitism said the rally and scuffles with police were “a dark day for London.”

“Not only did we see the usual antisemitic bile and open support for Jew-hating terrorist organizations to which our nation’s capital has become accustomed, but extremists repeatedly breached the modest restrictions imposed by the police on today’s protest,” it said in a post to X.

“For over a year we have called for these marches to be banned; we reiterated that call yesterday when it was clear that the police would not be able to control the situation,” the watchdog said.

Leading up to the march, dozens of British lawmakers, including Jewish officials, wrote a letter to police protesting the route of the rally and saying frequent pro-Palestinian marches on Saturdays interfered with Jewish religious practice.

Nine days ahead of the march, police issued a statement saying it would use its powers to “prevent the Palestine Solidarity Campaign forming up in the vicinity of a synagogue ahead of its planned protest.” The statement said the decision had been made prior to the lawmakers’ letter.

But the Palestine Solidarity Campaign said in its own statement that it rejected the police order, and that it had agreed on the route with the police in November.

The group said the synagogue itself was not on the route of the march and pointed to “thousands” of Jewish participants in its rallies as a sign that they aren’t antisemitic. It said discussions with the police remain ongoing.

On Sunday a ceasefire that had been announced days earlier came into effect after 15 months of war that began when the Palestinian terror group Hamas led thousands of terrorists in a devastating attack on Israel in which they killed some 1,200 people and took 251 hostages.

In January this year, Corbyn joined a South African delegation for hearings at the International Court of Justice, where the country accused Israel of committing genocide against Palestinians in the war against Hamas in Gaza.

The veteran left-winger, who led the main opposition Labour Party into the last election in 2019, but stepped down as leader after overseeing its worst results in decades, has been sitting as an independent MP since 2020.

The party suspended him after he refused to fully accept the findings of a rights watchdog’s probe into claims that antisemitism became rampant within Labour’s ranks under his leadership.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission ruled the party broke equality law when Corbyn was in charge.