MET BOSS DODGES TWO-TIER POLICING QUESTION ON RIOTS

Sir Mark Rowley caught on camera bizarrely grabbing reporter's microphone

- Steph Spyro

UNDER pressure Met boss Sir Mark Rowley knocked a reporter's microphone to the ground as he dodged a question over if he would "end two-tier policing" of rioting.

The Scotland Yard chief sent it flying as he left an emergency meeting called by Sir Keir Starmer to tackle the crisis yesterday.

Harsher

A journalist from Sky News had asked him: "Are we going to end two-tier policing, sir?" a reference to claims that forces have been harsher in their response to ongoing far-Right violence than to pro-Palestinian marchers or to disturbances in Leeds last month. But rather than respond, Sir Mark knocked the mic aside before walking off towards a waiting car on Whitehall.

The bizarre incident was filmed by camera crews waiting outside the Cobra civil contingencies summit of ministers and police chiefs.

The Prime Minister later dismissed allegations of twotier policing as a "non-issue".

Last night further trouble broke out in Plymouth and in the West Midlands as the rising total of arrests from a week of UK-wide violence neared 400 and the first suspects began to appear in court.

The Government and police chiefs are under pressure to stamp out violence which has seen town centres in flames and dozens of police officers injured, following the stabbing deaths of three dance class girls in Southport last Monday.