Pro-Palestinian and Just Stop Oil protests have left police £240m short of funding, warns Sadiq Khan

Police arrested a protester for his banner. Photo: Sinai Noor/Shutterstock

Monitoring pro-Palestinian protests has left Scotland Yard with a £240 million funding shortfall, Sadiq Khan has warned.

The Mayor of London has written to Home Secretary James Cleverley asking for additional funding support for the force, amid concerns that policing on the frontline and in the surrounding areas is suffering from constant pressure on public order.

As well as having to organize the large pro-Palestinian rallies that take place every week in the capital, the Met has to deal with almost daily demonstrations by Just Stop Oil activists.

In his letter, Mr Cleverly, Mr Khan said the extra spending had led to resource cuts elsewhere, with London communities directly affected.

He said: “We have seen a third of officers made redundant from local areas and that is why the Underground Commissioner has estimated, that the shortfall of money from the government is £240 million.»

Mayor Sadiq Khan Photo: Leon Neil/Getty Images

Mr Khan explained: “That's why I have written to the Home Secretary saying he is distributing According to the policing formula, he needs to make sure London gets the right amount that we due as a national and international capital.»

The letter from the Mayor in charge of policing in London reads like this: The Home Secretary is preparing to announce a police funding deal, which sets out the grants each force will receive.< /p>

In his letter, Mr Khan noted that since October 7, more than 28,000 officer shifts had been devoted to managing protests in London.

Last week, Scotland Yard said it had spent £20 million pounds sterling on Just Stop Oil policing alone since the group's first campaign in October 2022.

The force said the time spent on the group roughly equated to around 300 officers a day being pulled out of frontline policing across London.