Costs of policing pro-Palestine marches and averting Tube strikes
How is this likely to affect what we pay in Mayor Khan's Precept to our Council Tax ? 'Police said last Saturday’s pro-Palestinian march was the 12th large-scale protest since the 7 October attacks by Hamas on Israel, which led to a bitter and bloody conflict in the Middle East.The Met assistant commissioner Matt Twist said the cost of policing those and other linked protests was £38.5m. He said it was not for his force to call for any change in the law to further restrict demonstrations.He said while the protests had been largely peaceful, with up to 300,000 attending one demonstration, there had been 415 arrests, including 193 for alleged antisemitic offences such as offensive placards and chants, and 15 for alleged breaches of counter-terrorism laws, largely on suspicion of supporting Hamas'.And further, Sadiq Khan on Monday hailed a £30 million Tube pay deal that averted a week of strikes and which will give the lowest paid staff an 11 per cent increase.The deal — which provides a basic five per cent increase plus a lump sum of up to £1,400 — was struck after the Mayor unexpectedly found additional millions to prevent a rolling walkout by 10,000 RMT members in the first week in January. All 16,500 London Underground staff will now have the pay boost backdated to last April after Unite and the TSSA followed the RMT and Aslef in accepting the offer.Mr Khan’s Tory critics have accused him of “giving in to union blackmail” and warned it will fuel more pay demands. The cost of the pay deal will be a recurring cost to Transport for London. The Mayor funded the lump sums by taking £30 million from business rates and council tax. Previously TfL commissioner Andy Lord had warned unions preparing to strike that a five per cent rise was his “full and final offer”.
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