Increased security offered to MPs amid rise in threats over Brexit

The National Police Chiefs’ Council is urging all those who have a platform to speak to be moderate in their language as tempers flare on all sides of the EU debate.

Police have confirmed that a national pool of more than 10,000 public order-trained officers is available within 24 hours, to deal with any significant disorder.

But police chiefs are warning that such a major policing effort could not be sustained beyond about a week, before it began to impact on core policing duties.

Assistant Commissioner Martin Hewitt, who this week became chairman of the National Police Chiefs’ Council, said that public figures should be wary of “consequences that weren’t intended” when speaking about the issue.

He said: “This is highly emotive as an issue as we all know and clearly everyone will have their opinions.

“We are in an incredibly febrile atmosphere as a result of the whole EU exit scenario.

“I think there is a responsibility on those individuals that have a platform and have a voice, to communicate in a way that is temperate and is not in any way going to inflame people’s views.”

The political situation over Brexit has already seen heated protests on both sides, and a number of MPs have requested extra security in the past six months.

The number of crimes linked to Brexit, although small, has more than doubled in a fortnight, with 26 last week and 11 the week before.

About half were malicious communications, while the remainder included verbal abuse, harassment and protest activity.

One protester admitted climbing on to a station roof and causing widespread disruption to Eurostar services, while British Transport Police are looking for another who planted devices aimed at bringing trains to a halt in Cambridgeshire and Nottinghamshire.

Across the country, police forces have stepped up public order training. The total of 10,000 public order-trained officers nationally is more than were available during the riots of 2011.

The riot-trained teams can be deployed anywhere in the country within 24 hours.

Chief Constable Charlie Hall, the NPCC lead for operations, said: “We have developed and rehearsed mobilisation plans all across the UK, we have been working those, I have been testing those over the last few months to ensure they will work effectively for us.

“We are confident that those plans are well in place now and will serve us well. That will enable us to deploy well over 10,000 officers, mobilised right across the country to do that.”

But police chiefs acknowledge such an intensive policing commitment would struggle to be maintained beyond seven days without impacting on other core policing responsibilities, at a time when forces are already struggling to meet the demands of day to day requirements.

Chief Constable Hall said: “Well of course there are challenges around demand for policing and we are well rehearsed, but we do have those detailed plans in place to be able to support this effort.

“Forces know that they may have to look at how they respond to some of that demand, which is why we work officers on longer shifts through that.

“So forces will be looking very closely at that, which would include getting support from the likes of the special constabulary.”

Forces would be expected to cut down on “peripheral police activity” like crime prevention work and to cancel training if needed.

A ban on leave and calls on the military for help, as happened after the terror attacks in 2017, might also be required.

Former British army officer Colonel Richard Kemp said: “I think if there were problems post Brexit or around the whole Brexit decision making process, I think the armed forces would be used. But they’d probably be backfilling for the police, so they could carry out duties that may normally be carried out by the police.

“That might include the likes of security duties, guarding buildings, things like that. Roles that the army could do in the background in order to free up more police officers to carry out public order duties in the event of a problem.

“But I think it is unlikely that is going to happen unless it is a really serious incident.”

So far 15 forces have placed restrictions on annual leave, and two have officially asked for mutual aid – Kent, which covers the port of Dover, and Hampshire, which covers Portsmouth.

The National Police Chiefs’ Council said there was no intelligence of any planning for public disorder in the days ahead.

But with recent protests on the rail and road networks, along with an increasing number of threats to MPs, police remain on high alert and warn they will deal robustly with those who break the law.

(c) Sky News 2019: Increased security offered to MPs amid rise in threats over Brexit