It comes as the Met announced it would be out in force over the weekend, policing a number of anti-war protests across London.
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Met Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley has called for “very strict and clear laws” to deal with the growing number of public protests in London.
Speaking to LBC’s Tom Swarbrick, Sir Rowley warned there is a “significant” domestic threat from the Iranian regime as he said police need clearer laws to manage the growing number of “pro-Iranian” demonstrations in the capital.
It comes as the Met announced it would be out in force over the weekend, policing a number of anti-war protests across London.
When pressed by Tom on whether so-called “pro-Iran” protests should be banned, the commissioner said: “The balance between civil liberties to protest and other considerations is very much one for Parliament.
“What we want are very strict and clear laws, which would be an improvement on what we have today where the law is very vague on right to protest and there’s a review being done.
“It’s not clear enough. There's a lot of grey in it because the law was written 40 years ago. It wasn't designed for today's situation.”
He added: “It is really challenging the amount of protest in London. It draws officers away from communities and we've been dealing with the highest sustained tempo ever in terms of the resources that that takes. And obviously you saw last weekend I delayed my trip over here because, because we had the banning of the Al Quds march and I delayed my trip. So I was around in London for that and speaking to our officers on the briefing on Monday about their efforts. That went very well in terms of a different level of control.
Sir Mark added that the Iranian regime is currently posing a “significant domestic threat” to Britain.
“It's constant and very real,” he said.
“The person who leads nationally on this from my team, Lawrence Taylor, has spoken about this, as has Ken McCallum, who’s director general of the Security Service.
“We're well beyond 20 Iranian plots that we've collectively disrupted over the last couple of years.
“This is a sort of sustained, concerted effort. Sometimes these have been directed at the Iranian diaspora.” The Commissioner confirmed the Met plans to increase its use of controversial facial recognition technology in a bid to combat the threat.
He said: “We are definitely. We're locking up sex offenders, we're looking at wanted offenders, we're finding people who've been on the streets wanted for 20 years“The number of paedophiles, domestic violence offenders that we're arresting is extraordinary.”
Sir Mark’s comments come after 12 people were arrested during a protest and counter-protest for Al Quds Day last week.
Al Quds Day demonstrators chanted “from the river to the sea” and held pictures of the late leader of Iran at a static protest in London on Sunday.
The Metropolitan Police said they were “aware of chanting made by a speaker at the Al Quds protest and will be investigating”.
Scotland Yard had braced for a “difficult public order” environment, with at least 1,000 officers drafted in to manage the crowd.
In a post on X, the Metropolitan Police said: “Officers have made three arrests, one for showing support for a proscribed organisation, one for dangerous driving and a third for threatening and abusive behaviour.”
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood granted the police’s bid for a month-long ban on the annual march organised by the Islamic Human Rights Commission (IHRC), making it the first time such a restriction on protest had been imposed since 2012.
However, people could still legally assemble and take part in a so-called “static protest”.
Hundreds of people began arriving from 1pm, many holding Palestine flags and banners, some reading “Free Palestine” and “No to Israeli occupation”.
Pictures of Iran’s late leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei were also held up, some accompanied by the message “Choose the right side of history”.
Chants of “from the river to the sea” and “Israel is a terror state” could be heard.