Justice Secretary Alex Norris has twice declined to say that a pro-Palestine march planned on the 7 October anniversary of the Hamas terrorist attacks should be stopped.
He told The Camilla Tominey Show on GB News: “I have to say that obviously it wouldn’t be something I would take part in, and I would find it hard to understand why people would think that that is well timed.
“We have very important legislation around marches in conjunction with the police, and of course with the engagement with government as well. These things are looked on on their merits during the process, but I would always encourage people to be thoughtful, whether it’s about timing or whether it’s about routing of marches.”
Asked again if it should be banned, he said: “There is important legislation that allows for people to be able to make their views known in a democracy.
“I know that’s something you’ve talked passionately about before. There is, of course, that balance with everybody else too. That’s there in law, and you know there are concerns of policing and whatnot. There are ways in which that can be raised, and as I say, some mitigations that can be put in place too.”
On early prisoner releases, he said he “would have liked to have gone further” in who was excluded from release: “We’re in a situation where I’d be on your show, explaining to you that we’d run out of prison places if we hadn’t put into effect the Sentencing Act. That means that some prisoners are leaving earlier under very tight controls.
“We’ve already taken out of scope for that, you know, murderers and terrorists were never kind of factored into that. But also, I’ve been able to remove from that those who committed rape offences, child sex offences, those who’ve taken life.
“We would have liked to have gone further, I’ve said that very candidly to GB News viewers, as the Prime Minister said publicly too. But what I say to those victims who are concerned, particularly in the case of domestic abuse, that we are putting very significant controls on those individuals, you know, be that the first time of presumption on tagging, be that the use of exclusion zones, be that the use of restriction zones, drug tags, bans on who goes to the football, bans on driving, nighttime economy to control the behaviour of those individuals.
“We’re putting those efforts in, and we’ve been engaging with victims to say, what is it that you do in your life, so that the perpetrator can work around them rather than the other way round, as has been the case for so long.”
He shrugged off news that David Reuben is the latest billionaire to be leaving the UK: “I’m not privy to that person and to why they’re leaving the country.
“People come and go ordinarily every day of every year, so you know I’m not in a position to draw any conclusions from that.
“What I do know is exactly as you’ve just said yourself. We’re in a situation where our economy is growing, fastest in the G7. So despite very difficult global headwinds, the signs there are encouraging.
“I think Britain’s a great place to do business, a great place to work, the best country in the world to live to. We want people to think that way, and that’s what you know people do.”