Pressure piles on Met police chief Dame Cressida Dick to quit

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Met Police’s commissioner Dame Cressida Dick has insisted she will not resign as thousands of women descend on Parliament in protest over arrests made at yesterday’s vigil for Sarah Everard.

Sadiq Khan says he is ‘not satisfied’ with the explanation given by the Metropolitan Police leadership over the handling of Saturday night’s Clapham Common vigil, while Priti Patel said she was seeking a ‘full report,’ on events, describing footage from last night as ‘upsetting’.

After gathering outside the police headquarters today, demonstrators moved to Parliament Square where they staged a lie-down protest and chanted against the police, the government and Cressida Dick.

Protesters have moved on to Trafalgar Square, where they will stay before marching to Parliament Square once again, via New Scotland Yard. 

This afternoon Cressida Dick defended her own position, saying: ‘We’re still in a pandemic, unlawful gatherings are unlawful gatherings, officers have to take action if people are putting themselves massively at risk,’ Dick told reporters.

Asked if she was considering resigning, she said: ‘No, I’m not.’

Asked if she felt she owed an apology to her frontline officers, Dame Cressida said: ‘I feel for my officers, I feel for them every day.’ 

Ms Patel has now asked Sir Thomas Winsor, Chief Inspector of Constabulary, to conduct a ‘lessons learned’ review into the policing of the vigil for Sarah Everard on Clapham Common on Saturday, a Government source says.  

Cressida Dick added: ‘All the women and men of the Met are outraged at what has happened and they’re working as hard as they can to get justice for Sarah.

‘In that context, none of us would have wanted to see the scenes we saw at the end of yesterday’s events.

‘It’s worth saying, of course, I fully understand the strength of feeling I think as a woman hearing from people about their experiences in the past and what they feel about what happened to Sarah and what has been going on, I understand why so many people wanted to come and pay their respects and make a statement about this.

‘Indeed, if it had been lawful, I’d have been there, I’d have been at a vigil. And six hours of yesterday was really calm and peaceful, very few police officers around, respectful, people laying flowers, not gathering, and a vigil that did not breach the regulations.

‘Unfortunately, later on, we had a really big crowd that gathered, lots of speeches and quite rightly, as far as I can see, my team felt this is now an unlawful gathering which poses a considerable risk to people’s health according to the regulations.’ 

A Home Office spokesperson said: ‘The Home Secretary has read the report provided by the Metropolitan Police and feels there are still questions to be answered.

‘In the interests of ensuring public confidence in the police, earlier this afternoon the Home Secretary asked Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary to conduct a lessons learned review into the policing of the event at Clapham Common.’

The commissioner, who was appointed to the role in 2017, said she welcomes, and is ‘very comfortable’ with, a review into the events at Saturday’s vigil. 

She said the officers were in an ‘invidious’ position when crowds grew, continuing: ‘They then moved to try to explain to people, to engage with people, to get people to disperse from this unlawful gathering and many, many, many people did – unfortunately, a small minority did not.’

Asked what she thought when she saw the pictures of the policing at the vigil, she said: ‘I wouldn’t have wanted to see a vigil in memory of Sarah end with those scenes.

‘That’s why this morning I said, from what I can tell, I wasn’t there, but from what I can tell, my officers – in a very difficult position, as they have been again and again in the last year policing within coronavirus restrictions, having to uphold the law, having to be impartial, having to be fair.

‘But of course trying to apply common sense and discretion and if people don’t understand the law, trying to help them to understand and engage and speak before we ever turn to any enforcement, but that is why I said we didn’t want it to end like that, let’s have a review.’

She continued: ‘I spoke in the day to both the Home Secretary and the mayor, I’m very comfortable with that and I think officers will be as well. 

She added: ‘I completely recognise that (officers) are, particularly in this last year, often finding themselves in very very difficult situations, they are policing during a pandemic. Nobody wants a third wave to happen.

‘It’s only a few weeks since the NHS was on its knees. They have a really difficult job, they have to make fine judgments, they often don’t have infinite information or all the time in the world.

‘They have to make these really difficult calls and I don’t think anybody should be sitting back in an armchair and saying ‘well that was done badly’ or ‘I would have done it differently’ without actually understanding what was going through their minds.

‘I guarantee that every single officer who was policing last night, like me, would rather we were not in the time of coronavirus. There could be a large, peaceful set of vigils all over the country.

‘Most of them would have been at those vigils and I guarantee also that my officers up and down London and beyond, if they weren’t working, will have been thinking of Sarah at 9:30pm last night, they will have been lighting their candles or pausing, and it’s something we care about very, very deeply.’

Cressida Dick was today spotted walking into New Scotland Yard in Westminster at around 2.15pm, along with Deputy Commissioner Sir Steve House. 

Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey called on the Commissioner to ‘consider’ her leadership of the force, adding: ‘Cressida Dick has lost the confidence of the millions of women in London and should resign.’ 

Women’s Equality Party co-founder Catherine Mayer said her position was ‘untenable’.

Patsy Stevenson, who was pictured being held on the floor by police at the vigil, said she attended the gathering in Clapham Common yesterday in support of women who cannot walk down the street by themselves ‘because of the fear of men’.  

Ms Stevenson said she would like to ‘have a conversation’ with Metropolitan Police Commissioner Cressida Dick, telling LBC: ‘I would like to sit down with her and have a conversation. I think dialogue is very important in this case.’  

A crowd of around 1,500 people had gathered at Clapham Common in south London to remember the 33-year-old marketing executive, but scuffles broke out as police surrounded a bandstand covered in flowers left in tribute.

Home Office minister Victoria Atkins said she took the events ‘very seriously’ but that she wanted to give the commissioner ‘a chance to explain’ what happened. 

Dozens of police officers had moved in to block access to speakers as tensions sparked in the crowd and mourners started chanting ‘arrest your own’ and ‘shame on you’, with scenes quickly turning violent.  

Defending the force’s actions, Assistant Commissioner Helen Ball said ‘hundreds of people were packed tightly together,’ posing a very real risk of transmitting the virus. She added that officers had repeatedly encouraged those attending to leave, but ‘a small minority’ of people chanted at police, pushing and throwing objects.

‘We accept that the actions of our officers have been questioned,’ Ball said. ‘We absolutely did not want to be in a position where enforcement action was necessary. But we were placed in this position because of the overriding need to protect people’s safety.’  

Shadow domestic violence minister Jess Phillips said: ‘The reality is if Cressida Dick stays or goes (it) doesn’t make women in this country more safe, and that’s what I want to talk about.’

She said there were ‘so many missed opportunities throughout the day for police to work with organisers to create a completely safe vigil so that people could go and have a moment of sorrow and a moment of resistance’. 

Ms Phillips called for the minimum rape sentence to be increased from five to seven years, and said misogyny should be treated as a hate crime.

The Fire Brigades Union said earlier today that it stands ‘in solidarity’ with the women who were ‘manhandled, pushed to the ground, separated from their friends and arrested by the police last night’.

Condemning Met Police’s response, the firefighters’ union added: ‘These draconian and authoritative actions have no place in a democratic society.

‘This was a clear demonstration of the patriarchy’s inability to comprehend the reality and scope of male violence against women and girls. Those responsible for the decisions to approach this vigil in such a way should be held accountable.

‘Last night demonstrated that allowing the police to lead the response and set the level of restriction to peaceful protest would be a catastrophic mistake.’

Conservative MP for Folkestone & Hythe Damian Collins said: ‘Appalling scenes in Clapham last night of aggressive police action at the vigil for Sarah Everard & a justificatory statement from the Met using the language of the abuser to its victims over the years – it’s your fault, you made us do it. They need to be held to account for this.’   

Ms Stevenson said that she would be attending a demonstration in Parliament Square on Monday afternoon.

‘I think the main point of this… is that women don’t feel safe, and they don’t feel safe walking down a street. And that’s the bare minimum we should feel the freedom to do, and I think it’s appalling that it’s gone on for this long.’

Campaign group Reclaim These Streets said: ‘We’ve asked Met Commissioner Cressida Dick to meet us urgently to explain the actions taken by the police last night – before she reports to the Home Secretary.

‘The @metpoliceuk must begin to rebuild relations with women who have lost trust and are hurting. #ReclaimTheseStreets’.

Mr Khan said he would be asking HM Inspectorate of Constabulary and the Independent Office for Police Conduct to look into the events on Saturday night, adding that the scenes at the vigil were ‘completely unacceptable’, despite having received assurances from Scotland Yard last week that it would be policed ‘sensitively’.

‘In my view, this was not the case,’ he said.

Mr Khan said: ‘I asked the Commissioner and Deputy Commissioner to come into City Hall today to give me an explanation of yesterday’s events and the days leading up to them.

‘I am not satisfied with the explanation they have provided.

‘I will now be asking Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) to conduct a full independent investigation of events yesterday evening and in previous days.

‘I am also asking the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) to investigate the actions of police officers yesterday evening.

‘It is vital that these events are not allowed to undermine the powerful calls since Sarah’s murder for meaningful action to finally stop men inflicting violence on women.

‘It was clear before yesterday that there isn’t adequate trust and confidence from women and girls in the police and criminal justice system more widely.

‘Further steps must now be taken to address this.’

Jess Phillips has said more needs to be done to bring charges in domestic abuse and rape cases, telling The Andrew Marr Show: ‘I don’t think that the police over the past few years have done enough to increase charging in domestic abuse, have done enough to increase charging in rape. Both are reducing.’

Also asked about whether Metropolitan Police Commissioner Dame Cressida Dick should resign, she said: ‘This is not the day for me to say whether she should go and give a headline to Cressida Dick when Sarah Everard is the name that should ring out.’

Addressing the police’s management of the vigil in south London, Ms Phillips said: ‘There were a million ways that that could have been organised but the police put their foot down before they put their boot in and at every stage they made the wrong call.’

Andrew Marr suggested that individual police forces have had to make their own decisions about policy due to unclear coronavirus legislation.

She said: ‘I think that the police have had a terrible job throughout this process of being able to properly understand, and let’s face it, they don’t have the resources after years of being dwindled away to actually properly deal with some of the things that they might be being asked to do.

‘But the reality is within the legislation that has been nodded through, there was room for, yesterday, a peaceful vigil to take place and they missed the opportunity.’

Professor Sir Ian Diamond, head of the Office for National Statistics (ONS), was asked about the under-reporting of crimes against women.

He told The Andrew Marr Show on BBC One: ‘What we have reported over many years through the crime survey that we do jointly with the Home Office is that there is a very large under-reporting both of rape and of assault, which includes penetration.

‘Indeed in some of our more recent figures we show that really there are only about a third that are reported to the police, and then very many few of those go to prosecution.

‘One of the reasons why we think it’s incredibly important to do these crime surveys – because it gives people a chance to have a voice.’

Victims Commissioner Dame Vera Baird QC said there was no real prospect of police successfully intervening in the crowd in Clapham on Saturday night, describing the circling of the bandstand as ‘quasi military’

She said: ‘To push people away seems to me to be a dreadful piece of misjudgment. Are they really improving the chances of Covid not spreading by putting their knees in the middle of the back of young women, and putting their hands in handcuffs? It didn’t seem to me to be the right thing to do.’ 

Reclaim These Streets had organised the vigil before being forced to cancel following consultation with the Metropolitan Police, which said it would be in breach in coronavirus restrictions.

After the clashes, organiser Jamie Klingler said the force’s handling of events was a sign of the ‘systemic ignoring and oppressing of women’.  

‘I think we were shocked and really, really sad and to see videos of policemen handling women at a vigil about violence against women by men. I think it was it was painful and pretty triggering to see,’ she said.

‘The fact that nobody stepped in and said: ”do you see how this looks?”. The fact that Thursday and Friday they wasted our organising time by dragging us to the High Court for our human rights to protest and we were going to have a silent vigil.’

She added: ‘I was bringing my tiny dog, and we were absolutely doing it to have a silent, respectful protest for Sarah Everard, and for all the women affected by violence at the hands of men.

‘Especially today, it’s Mother’s Day. It’s the week of International Women’s Day. And instead of allowing and facilitating it like the Lambeth police wanted to – and that police force was so supportive – Scotland Yard quashed us and in doing so silenced us and got the reaction they got last night.’

The Met Police defended its handling of a high-profile protest calling for greater public safety for women, after male officers were seen scuffling with the crowd and physically restraining female demonstrators.

Home Office minister Ms Atkins said she wanted to give the commissioner ‘a chance to explain’ what happened.

She told Sky’s Sophy Ridge On Sunday: ‘I really, really want to support the Home Secretary in her request to have a report from Cressida.

‘The police have got a tough job in policing the coronavirus pandemic more generally at the moment.’

She added: ‘I think this morning given how difficult last night was, after what has been an incredibly upsetting week, I’m very keen that we don’t pre-empt that report and we give the Met Commissioner a chance to explain what happened last night.’

Hundreds defied coronavirus restrictions on Saturday night to gather on Clapham Common park to mark the death of Sarah Everard.    

Earlier yesterday, during more peaceful scenes, a maskless Duchess of Cambridge made a brief and unannounced visit to Clapham Common to lay daffodils in tribute to Miss Everard. 

Kensington Palace said Kate Middleton ‘remembers what it was like to walk around London at night before she was married’ and ‘wanted to pay her respects to the family and to Sarah’.

The visit came after a planned vigil was cancelled, with organisers citing the police’s ‘lack of constructive engagement’ to help make it Covid secure. Instead, officers gathered in force to break up the growing crowds

Safeguarding minister Victoria Atkins told Sky that the majority of women on Clapham Common had a ‘peaceful experience’. But she added: ‘These scenes we have seen later on in the day and in the evening are very upsetting. I take it seriously and the Home Secretary takes it seriously.’

Asked about a photograph showing a woman being pinned to the ground by a police officer she added: ‘That photograph is something that the police will have to explain in their report to the Home Secretary.

‘Any policing of large event is difficult at the best of times, but we are in a pandemic with all the rules that flow from that.’

Ms Atkins was asked on Sky News if Cressida Dick should resign. She said: ‘I really want to support the Home Secretary in her request to have a report from Cressida. The police have got a tough job in policing the coronavirus pandemic more generally at the moment.

‘I think this morning, given how difficult last night was, after what has been an incredibly upsetting week, I’m keen we don’t pre-empt that report and that we give the Met Commissioner the chance to explain what happened last night.’  

Officers pinned women to the ground to handcuff them – and London Mayor Sadiq Khan later slammed the police’s ‘unacceptable’ response as ‘neither appropriate nor proportionate’. He added that he was in contact with Met Police Commissioner Dame Cressida Dick.  

A fundraiser set up by Reclaim These Streets for women’s charitable causes passed its target of £320,000 on Saturday evening, and now has more than £470,000 in donations.

In the early hours of Sunday, Assistant Commissioner Helen Ball said police were put into a position ‘where enforcement action was necessary’. She said: ‘Hundreds of people were packed tightly together, posing a very real risk of easily transmitting Covid-19.

‘Police must act for people’s safety, this is the only responsible thing to do. The pandemic is not over and gatherings of people from right across London and beyond, are still not safe.

‘Those who gathered were spoken to by officers on a number of occasions and over an extended period of time. We repeatedly encouraged those who were there to comply with the law and leave. Regrettably, a small minority of people began chanting at officers, pushing and throwing items.’

The force said it will conduct an inquiry into what happened and ‘accepts the actions of our officers have been questioned’ but added officers wanted to ‘act to ensure public safety’.

Elisabeth Chapple, leader of the Met’s South West Command Unit for Kingston, Merton, Richmond and Wandsworth, said: ‘To all the public, communities, partners, critical friends, police officers, staff and volunteers of South West London, I know and understand that this morning we are in a difficult place. We will work hard, with you, to re-build trust and hope there are many better days to come.’  

Hundreds of mourners, estimated at around 1,500, defied lockdown rules to gather to lay tributes at the bandstand in Clapham Common – near where Miss Everard was last seen alive before her disappearance. 

Footage posted to social media this evening showed a tussle between Met Police officers and some of the crowd as some shouted ‘you are scum’ following the brief clash. One woman screamed ‘you’re supposed to protect us’.

Politicians from across all three main political parties condemned the scenes – which are expected to throw a spotlight on Commissioner Dick’s handling of the force.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer, Liberal Democrats’ Sir Ed and Conservative MP Steve Baker were among parliamentarians to condemn the heavy-handed approach, as Mr Baker called events in Clapham ‘unspeakable scenes’.  

Met Police Federation chairman Ken Marsh disputed the criticism as he said: ‘Politicians of all parties should make themselves aware of all the facts before rushing to judgement and making statements.’ 

Earlier on Saturday, mourners broke down in tears as they paid their respects to the 33-year-old marketing manager who disappeared on her way home from visiting a friend on March 3. 

It comes after Scotland Yard confirmed human remains found in Kent belonged to Ms Everard. On Saturday, serving police officer Wayne Couzens, 48, was remanded in custody after appearing in Westminster Magistrates’ court charged with kidnap and murder. 

The court heard Miss Everard’s body was found inside a builder’s bag and identified through the use of dental records.  

During the impromptu vigil, an unnamed anti-lockdown protester had to be escorted away by police officers after he stood on the bandstand to rant about not being able to see his friends. He was met with a chorus of shouts as one woman screamed ‘this isn’t about you’ and another added ‘this woman has died’. 

As scenes turned violent after sunset, politicians joined forces to condemn the Met Police’s approach. Liberal Democrats deputy leader Daisy Cooper tweeted that the scenes in Clapham were ‘disgusting and completely avoidable’.

The Home Secretary Ms Patel tweeted: ‘Some of the footage circulating online from the vigil in Clapham is upsetting. I have asked the Metropolitan Police for a full report on what happened. My thoughts remain with Sarah’s family and friends at this terrible time.’ 

London Mayor Mr Khan tweeted: ‘The scenes from Clapham Common are unacceptable. The police have a responsibility to enforce Covid laws but from images I’ve seen it’s clear the response was at times neither appropriate nor proportionate. I’m contact with the Commissioner & urgently seeking an explanation.’

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer tweeted: ‘The scenes in Clapham this evening are deeply disturbing. Women came together to mourn Sarah Everard – they should have been able to do so peacefully. I share their anger and upset at how this has been handled. This was not the way to police this protest.’ 

Earlier in the day he tweeted: ‘Tonight I will light a candle for Sarah Everard. The whole country’s thoughts are with Sarah’s friends and family at this awful time.

‘Violence against women and girls is still far too common. I will do everything I can to help make our streets safe and to end this injustice.’

Former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn shared a picture of candles on his windowsill, tweeting: ‘Women must be safe on our streets. Solidarity with Sarah. Women must be safe to walk peacefully everywhere.’

‘The Met Police must answer for their actions at Clapham Common this evening,’ he added.

Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey has called for Dame Cressida to ‘consider’ her leadership of the force.

In a letter to the Commissioner, he wrote: ‘The scenes this evening of the policing of the Clapham Common vigil in memory of Sarah Everard are utterly disgraceful and shame the Metropolitan Police.

‘The vigil this evening was a peaceful one brought together in the most horrific of circumstances.

‘Across the country, countless women have told their own painful stories of harassment and abuse. Your officers should have been standing in solidarity with those on Clapham Common tonight not being ordered to disrupt this display of grief and peaceful protest.

‘This was a complete abject tactical and moral failure on the part of the Police.

‘We therefore call on you to consider your leadership of the service and whether you can continue to have the confidence of the millions of women in London that you have a duty to safeguard and protect.’

Conservative candidate for London mayor Shaun Bailey said: ‘The scenes at Sarah Everard’s vigil in Clapham tonight are horrifying.

‘With ultimate responsibility for policing and public safety in London, the Mayor must immediately explain how these events were allowed to unfold.

‘If Sadiq Khan wasn’t involved in tonight’s operational decision making, given the significance of tonight’s vigil, he should have made sure he was.

‘If he was involved – he has serious questions to answer.’

Fellow London Mayor hopeful Laurence Fox wrote: ‘Appalling and heavy handed policing of a vigil to a murdered woman in London. The public cannot maintain trust in a police force that is seen to be applying different set of rules to different protests depending on the political motivation of the protest.’ 

Streatham MP Bell Ribeiro-Addy tweeted footage of the clashes at Clapham Common. ‘This could have been the socially distanced vigil the community needed to remember Sarah and all the women who have lost their lives to violence. We knew what was going to happen if the event was shut down.’

She added: ‘I know Lambeth Borough officers made efforts to compromise with the organisers but were overruled from high up.’They’ll be left to deal with the fallout of this and the further burden it places on already strained community relationships. Very disappointing from Scotland Yard.’

One video posted online showed Metropolitan Police officers grabbing women stood within the bandstand in Clapham Common before leading them away, to screaming and shouting from onlookers. 

Liberal Democrats leader Sir Ed Davey tweeted: ‘The MET police have acted terribly and caused great harm and hurt. Millions of women are angry and in grief, Sarah Everard’s horrific murder and the millions of acts of assault women face every day are why women created this vigil.’

He added: ‘I am an ally. #ReclaimTheseStreets.’

Conservative MP Steve Baker described events in Clapham as ‘unspeakable scenes’.

‘You need to change lockdown law now @BorisJohnson,’ he tweeted.

Mr Baker has been a prominent campaigner from the backbenches for a faster loosening of coronavirus restrictions than planned by the Government. 

Conservative MP Caroline Nokes wrote: ‘Truly shocked at the scenes from Clapham Common – in this country we police by consent – not by trampling the tributes to a woman who was murdered and dragging other women to the ground. Badly misjudged by #metpolice’

Labour MP Harriet Harman wrote: ‘Met mishandled vigil plan from the outset. They should have reached agreement. Terrible scenes in Clapham. I don’t want to see any of these women in court.’

Another, MP Paula Barker, said: ‘These scenes of Police manhandling women who had come to mourn the death of Sarah Everard are deeply disturbing. Serious questions need to be raised.’

And Labour MP David Lammy added: ‘Women should have been able to mourn the death of Sarah Everard in peace. The images of male police officers manhandling women at this moment of national trauma are distressing. The way this was policed was wrong and lessons must be learned.’ 

Shadow home secretary Nick Thomas-Symonds described the scenes in Clapham as ‘deeply distressing’.

‘I share the anger there is about the policing of this and lessons need to be learned,’ he tweeted. ‘People should have been able to mark this moment peacefully and safely. This is a national moment for change.

‘Women across the country have shared powerful testimonies of unacceptable abuse and the desperate, long overdue, need for change. We need to find a way for people to show solidarity safely, and in a Covid-safe way.

‘At the heart of this we should also keep at the forefront of our minds the anguish that Sarah Everard’s family must be going through and prioritise finding ways to support them.’

A Reclaim These Streets event was due to be held tonight at the bandstand on Clapham Common, near where Ms Everard went missing, but organisers yesterday failed to secure a High Court ruling that lockdown – which bans gatherings – should not stop their right to protest.  

Despite urging people to conduct a vigil at their doorstep with a candle, hundreds of people arrived at Clapham Common this evening and similar gatherings have been held in Bournemouth, Leeds, Cambridge and Bristol. 

Following violence at vigils, Reclaim These Streets said it was ‘deeply saddened and angered by the scene of police officers physically manhandling women at a vigil against male violence’.

A spokesman added: ‘From the start Reclaim These Streets set out to work closely with the Met to ensure this vigil could go ahead safely, so women could stand together peacefully and safely to remember Sarah Everard and all the women lost to male violence.

‘The Metropolitan Police failed to work with us despite the High Court ruling yesterday that a vigil could potentially go ahead lawfully. In doing so they created a risky and unsafe situation. It is their responsibility to protect public order, public health and the right to protest – they failed tonight on all accounts.

‘All the time they spent fighting us on a legal claim that the Judge agreed should not have been necessary and was caused by the Metropolitan Police’s stance, they could’ve been working with us to ensure the vigil went ahead in a safe way. The Judge was clear and the Metropolitan Police conceded minutes before the hearing, that there was no blanket ban on protest under the current law. They then had an opportunity – and a responsibility to work with us safely and within the law.

‘This week of all weeks the police should have understood that women would need a place to mourn, reflect and show solidarity. Now is the time for the police and the Government to recognise that the criminal justice system is failing women. Tonight, it has failed women again, in the most destructive way. We will keep fighting for women’s voices to be heard and to matter.’ 

Campaign group Sisters Uncut, which had representatives attending the Clapham vigil, tweeted: ‘As soon as the sun went down, police stormed the bandstand. We do NOT answer to violent men.’

The account posted: ‘Stay safe. Know your rights: ‘NO COMMENT’ if cops talk to you. If police ask you to do anything, ask ‘am I legally obliged to?’. if they say yes, ask ‘under what power?” 

Sisters Uncut tweeted claiming ‘male police officers waited for the sun to set before they started grabbing and manhandling women in the crowd’.

After the clashes in Clapham, Charlotte Nichols, shadow minister for women and equalities, tweeted: ‘If  @metpoliceuk had put the resources into assisting @ReclaimTS to hold the covid-secure vigil originally planned that they put into stopping any collective show of grief and solidarity (both through the courts and a heavy-handed physical response), we’d all be in a better place.’ 

Female MPs have strongly criticised the Met’s handling of the vigil.

Liberal Democrat Wera Hobhouse tweeted: ‘Is this really 21st century Britain? What is our police doing? Whatever has happened to policing for the community on behalf of the community?’

And Labour’s Sarah Owen posted: ‘This is heartbreaking and maddening to watch. No one can see these scenes and think that this has been handled anything but badly by @metpoliceuk. It could and should have been so different.’

Gracie Bradley, interim director of human rights group Liberty, said: ‘Police were given the choice on how to approach this protest. They could have worked with organisers to ensure people could collectively grieve and protest a lack of protection.

‘But instead they chose aggressive interventions that put people’s health at risk and led to chaos and distress.

‘The true architect of this disaster is the Home Secretary, who has relentlessly demonised protesters and refused to support a protest exemption to the lockdown rules.

‘She has undermined a vital pillar of democracy in the process, and pitched police against the public by encouraging aggressive enforcement against those who take to the streets to dissent.’

More than 100 people defied a police request to stay away from a Birmingham city centre vigil to remember Sarah Everard. 

Event organisers had called off the gathering earlier in the day following discussions with West Midlands Police, but people still attended.

The force had warned those still intending to show up that ‘current Covid-19 regulations do not permit large gatherings’.

However, the hour-long vigil, which was addressed by several speakers and included a minute’s silence for Ms Everard, passed off without incident and with no obvious sign of uniformed police.

One woman, addressing the Birmingham vigil, said: ‘The police have prevented this, but despite that we have still come out in a pretty decent number.

‘I think we should all be really proud of the fact that we have stood our ground anyway.’

She added: ‘One of the reasons I am here today is not just to acknowledge the tragic, awful thing that happened to Sarah, but also the countless women who are going to be dying because of the system.’  

Responding to backlash, the Met Police’s assistant commissioner Helen Ball said officers were faced with a ‘very difficult decision’.

She added: ‘May I start by extending my deepest condolences to the family and friends of Sarah Everard. Across the Met we are still extremely saddened and shocked by the tragic circumstance of her disappearance and death.

‘Earlier tonight, I joined the Commissioner in a candlelit vigil outside New Scotland Yard. I know many thousands of people up and down the nation also held similar vigils in Sarah’s name.

‘I recognise that the decision by the organisers to cancel the Reclaim These Streets vigil in Clapham Common was deeply unwelcome news. Even so, given the ever present threat of Coronavirus, this was the right decision to make.

‘Today, for over six hours hundreds of people came to lay flowers and pay their respects to Sarah in Clapham Common in a safe and lawful way.

‘Around 6pm, more people began to gather close to the bandstand within the Common. Some started to make speeches from the bandstand. These speeches then attracted more people to gather closer together.

‘At this point, officers on the ground were faced with a very difficult decision. Hundreds of people were packed tightly together, posing a very real risk of easily transmitting Covid-19.

‘Police must act for people’s safety, this is the only responsible thing to do. The pandemic is not over and gatherings of people from right across London and beyond, are still not safe.

‘Those who gathered were spoken to by officers on a number of occasions and over an extended period of time. We repeatedly encouraged those who were there to comply with the law and leave. Regrettably, a small minority of people began chanting at officers, pushing and throwing items.

‘After speaking with officers, the vast majority of people quickly left. Four arrests have been made for public order offences and for breaches of the Health Protection Regulations.

‘Part of the reason I am speaking to you tonight is because we accept that the actions of our officers have been questioned.

‘We absolutely did not want to be in a position where enforcement action was necessary. But we were placed in this position because of the overriding need to protect people’s safety.’Let me end by saying that across the Met, we review every single event that we police to see if there are lessons that can be learnt. This one will be no different.’ 

Earlier, attendees in Birmingham had lit candles and laid them at the foot of a tree in Victoria Square, to which signs had been fixed reading ‘I am Sarah Everard’ and ‘Male violence is for men to fix’.

One woman, addressing those gathered at the Birmingham vigil, said: ‘The fact ‘not all men’ was trending this week, higher than ‘hashtag SarahEverard’, says all we need to know about why these things perpetuate.

‘The fact police released a statement telling women in south-east London to stay indoors and not to go out past a certain time, shows how ingrained victim-blaming is.

‘Women are routinely attacked, abused and killed by all kinds of men; family members, colleagues, men they’ve never met or spoken to, men they’ve rejected, men in charge of supposedly keeping them safe, or positions of power – simply just for existing and being visible.’

She added: ‘Yet there’s so little retribution.

‘Where do we go – to the police? Our criminal justice system is stacked against victims and makes it nigh on impossible to convict perpetrators.’ 

She said: ‘After the court case yesterday, the High Court left the door open for the MET police to engage with the organisers to agree a peaceful, socially distant vigil. They refused and did this instead.’

Another speaker, who introduced herself to the Birmingham crowd as Elizabeth from Wolverhampton, said: ‘I am fed up of hearing people – men and women – telling me that I need to have somebody to walk with me.

‘If I go somewhere, they say ‘oh, I’ll walk you home’ – it seems like almost it’s something that I have to do, be walked home.

‘I’ve been told this, like many of you, since I was a young girl, I’m not a child, I don’t need to be told how I should behave, I should be able – and I do – to walk the streets anytime I want.

‘Because I am a free human-being, I am equal to everybody else, not a child to be told what I have to do.’

She added: ‘I just wish that everybody would be safe to walk, anytime, anywhere, without fear of violence – society needs to change.’ 

She added: ‘I know Lambeth Borough officers made efforts to compromise with the organisers but were overruled from high up.

‘They’ll be left to deal with the fallout of this and the further burden it places on already strained community relationships. Very disappointing from Scotland Yard.’

Police said the gathering at Clapham Common was ‘unsafe’, and urged people to go home. 

A tweet from the Lambeth police account said: ‘The gathering at #ClaphamCommon is unsafe. Hundreds of people are tightly packed together in breach of the regulations and risking public health.

‘We are urging people to go home and we thank those who have been engaging with officers and who are leaving.’

A small vigil was held in Brussels for Ms Everard. Entrepreneur Rozina Spinnoy, who moved to Belgium almost 20 years ago, attended the event with her son and a few others, holding posters proclaiming ‘reclaim these streets’.

She said: ‘Todays Brussels vigil was important for me. Showing all that regardless of our backgrounds, colour, race or religion, as women we unite – we share the grief together over Sarah Everard and all women who have experienced violence.

‘Internationally and cross border to show solidarity in the fight to stop violence against women. We won’t be silenced.’

She added: ‘I feel positive to have contributed to this campaign for more safety / no violence against women in public spaces. Also to remember Sarah.’  

Meanwhile, Boris Johnson lit a candle outside Downing Street for Ms Everard tonight with his fiancee Carrie Symonds. The Prime Minister said he ‘cannot imagine how unbearable’ the pain and grief is for Ms Everard’s family and friends.

He wrote on Twitter: ‘Tonight Carrie and I will be lighting a candle for Sarah Everard and thinking of her family and friends. I cannot imagine how unbearable their pain and grief is. We must work fast to find all the answers to this horrifying crime.

‘I will do everything I can to make sure the streets are safe and ensure women and girls do not face harassment or abuse.’  

Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon was among many to share an image of a candle alight in their homes.

She tweeted: ‘For Sarah, and all the others #ReclaimTheStreets.’ 

Comedian Sandi Toksvig tonight said ‘this must become a turning point’ as she opened an online vigil to Ms Everard.

Speaking at Feminists of London’s virtual event, the television presenter said it was not a ‘small change’ that was needed, but a ‘cultural shift about how women are viewed and treated both in the public and private space’.

‘This has to be a turning point where ending violence finally becomes a political priority,’ she said. 

Ms Toksvig expressed her ‘profound sorrow and rage’.

She said: ‘The truth is of course I don’t want to be here at all, I do not want to attend a vigil for a bright young woman in her early 30s, a woman with her life before her.

‘I do not want to be here talking about the memory of Sarah. I have two daughters about the same age as Sarah. Tomorrow is Mother’s Day. Never have I felt more passionately concerned about my kids.

‘It surely cannot be asking too much to want them simply to be free, to walk where they like, when they like.

‘I am filled in equal measure with profound sorrow and rage, and I know there are many who share this rage and I think it is entirely justifiable. But I also know that it will harm rather than help us if we don’t try and direct that anger to good purpose.’

She added: ‘Tonight we reflect that when the vigil is over, the work begins.’ 

Police had previously warned that each vigil organiser faced a £10,000 fine if events went ahead, the group claimed, adding it did not want to be forced to give money to ‘a system that consistently fails to keep women safe’. 

This morning a statement said: ‘We have been very disappointed that given the many opportunities to engage with the organisers constructively, the Metropolitan Police have been unable to commit to anything.’   

The organisation is now urging people to take part in a doorstep vigil tonight at 9.30pm.

The group has asked people to ‘shine a light – a candle, a torch, a phone – to remember Sarah Everard and all the women affected by and lost to violence’. 

Labour MP for Streatham Bell Ribeiro-Addy tweeted: ‘On today’s walk, I laid flowers at Clapham Common bandstand in memory of Sarah Everard and all the women lost to violence.

‘Hundreds of people came to show their solidarity and I can see hundreds more on my way home. The Police’s decision to cancel the vigil makes no sense.’

Commander Catherine Roper, the Met’s lead for community engagement responded that officers had held a number of ‘challenging talks’ with the vigil organisers.

She added: ‘While we understand their frustrations of this cancellation and share the nation’s outrage at this crime, we must all continue to work together to fight Covid-19 and keep each other safe.’

Calling off the event, Reclaim These Streets said it would aim to fundraise £320,000 for women’s causes, equal to £10,000 for every proposed fine for the 32 vigils.

More than £50,000 was raised in the first three hours of the Just Giving page going live and it has now reached half its target.

A virtual vigil is also being coordinated, while a decision on similar events outside of London, that fall under different police forces, will be made later. 

Organisers said they had made ‘every effort’ to pull off the vigil to ‘balance our right as women to freedom of expression’ with the current Covid curbs. 

The group brought an urgent action in a bid for a declaration that any ban on outdoor gatherings under coronavirus regulations is ‘subject to the right to protest’, and thus the vigil should be allowed to happen.

Mr Justice Holgate declined to grant the group’s request and also refused to make a declaration that an alleged policy by the force of ‘prohibiting all protests, irrespective of the specific circumstances’ is unlawful.

Reclaim These Streets resolved to continue discussions with the Met, which ordered people not to gather but ‘to find a safe alternative way to express their views’. 

Groups of people stood in vigil for Sarah Everard at locations around the UK, including Glasgow, Bristol and Nottingham.

In Bristol, a female police officer asked one member of the crowd to leave the vigil, saying she risks her life to be out dispersing crowds in a pandemic.

A woman could be heard shouting back: ‘You risk your life every night, love.’

Caitlin Prowle, one of the Reclaim These Streets organisers, said they did not want to end up in a situation where they were having to raise funds to pay fines.

She said: ‘The police’s lack of co-operation and unwillingness to engage with us to find a compromise means that we can’t go forward in good faith.

‘We can’t put our supporters at risk, quite frankly we can’t put ourselves at risk in that way, and so really they’ve left us with no other option.’ 

Flowers were first laid this morning and continued to be placed throughout the day, with some women saying they would be attending this evening despite the cancellation. 

Reclaim These Streets added: ‘We were told that pressing ahead could risk a £10,000 fine each for each woman organising.’

While confident they could raise the money to foot the cost of fines, the organisation said it would be a ‘poor use’ of funds.’We do not want to see hundreds of thousands of pounds contributed to a system that consistently fails to keep women safe,’ they said. 

MPs also expressed regret at the decision and called for laws on freedom of assembly during the pandemic to be clarified.

Mandu Reid, the leader of the Women’s Equality Party, has said violence against women and girls is ‘akin to a form of domestic terrorism’.

Speaking at Feminists of London’s virtual vigil, she said: ‘The pain and poignancy of this moment lies in the devastating fact that all women and every girl lives under the perpetual threat that what happened to Sarah could happen to any one of us.

‘The reality for women and girls is that the harassment we experience, which is as omnipresent as the air we breathe, could escalate at any time.’

She continued: ‘I am done with empty platitudes from political leaders from across the spectrum who treat male violence like a tragic but inevitable force of nature, as if they haven’t spent years slashing budgets to prevention programmes and support services.’

Ms Reid added: ‘Piecemeal measures and individual actions do matter and do make a difference but let’s be real, they won’t turn the tide on this.

‘The way to truly honour Sarah and every other woman we’ve lost is to demand that politicians of all stripes treat violence against women and girls as a political and policing priority.’

Home Secretary Priti Patel said that almost 20,000 people had responded in 24 hours to a consultation on how the Government could tackle violence against women and girls.

‘That is completely unprecedented & we will carefully consider responses,’ she tweeted.

Ms Patel added that she would be ‘lighting a candle tonight in Sarah’s memory’.