Police forced to close Tower Bridge due to pro-Palestine protest

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Police have been forced to close Tower Bridge due to a pro-Palestine protest in central London.

City of London Police introduced the closure of the bridge to automobiles and pedestrians on Saturday night, as large crowds have been seen gathered on the street and pavement.

Demonstrators calling for a ceasefire in Gaza have been heard chanting “free Palestine”, in movies posted on social media, as they waved Palestinian flags.

The pressure confirmed Tower Bridge was shut at round 5.40pm “due to protest activity”, with officers on the scene. Roughly 45 minutes later, police stated the bridge had reopened.

Writing on X, previously Twitter, City of London Police stated: “Tower Bridge is currently closed due to protest activity. Officers are in attendance at the scene.”

Later, it wrote: “Tower Bridge has now reopened. Thank you for your patience.”

It comes after the Palestine Solidarity Campaign defended the precise to foyer MPs “in large numbers”, amid experiences the group wished so many protesters to flip up that Parliament would “have to lock the doors”.

The group stated the difficulty of MPs’ safety was “serious” however shouldn’t be used to “shield MPs from democratic accountability”.

The organisation’s director Ben Jamal stated 1000’s of individuals have been “shamefully” denied entry into Parliament on Wednesday as they tried to foyer MPs to vote in favour of a ceasefire in Gaza in what he described was one of many largest bodily lobbies of parliament in historical past.

The Times reported that Mr Jamal instructed a crowd of demonstrators within the build-up to the protest on Wednesday: “We want so many of you to come that they will have to lock the doors of Parliament itself.”

Sir Lindsay Hoyle, the Commons Speaker who has confronted calls to resign after going towards conference through the SNP’s Opposition Day debate on a ceasefire, stated his motivation for widening Wednesday’s dialogue was fuelled by concern about MPs’ safety due to intimidation suffered by some parliamentarians.

Mr Jamal stated the group “does not call” for protests exterior MPs’ properties and believed parliamentarians have a proper “to have their privacy respected”.

The Government’s political violence tsar has stated police ought to have the powers to “disperse” protests round Parliament, MPs’ workplaces and council chambers that they deem to be threatening.

Baron Walney, the Government’s adviser on political violence and disruption, stated on Friday that the “aggressive intimidation of MPs” by “mobs” was being mistaken for an “expression of democracy”.

The crossbench peer, who in December submitted a Government-commissioned evaluate into how actions by political teams can “cross into criminality and disruption to people’s lives”, instructed BBC Radio 4’s Today programme he was calling for police forces to act “uniformly in stopping” protest exterior MPs’ properties.