LIZ Truss has said people are being “allowed” to demonstrate “in favour of terrorists” as more pro-Palestinian marches take place across the UK on Saturday.
The Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) has arranged a country-wide “day of action” to demand a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war, with a large demonstration taking place in Edinburgh as part of the campaign.
It comes after fighting resumed between Tel Aviv and Hamas following a week-long truce that allowed hostages being held in Gaza to be released, along with Palestinian prisoners who had been incarcerated in Israel.
There are fears of further civilian casualties after Israel dropped leaflets on Friday warning residents to leave the southern part of the strip where two million people — almost the entire Gazan population — are based.
The conflict, sparked by Hamas’s deadly assault on Israel on October 7, has led to regular protests in support of the Palestinians in the UK since the bloodshed started.
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But Truss, who has been on a trip to the United States this week as part of a delegation with the Conservative Friends of Ukraine, suggested the protests showed the “woke left” would “rather support authoritarian regimes” than the West.
Speaking to the right-wing US broadcaster Fox News while in Washington DC, the Conservative MP said: “On the streets of London, I see people demonstrating in favour of terrorists, and that being allowed to happen.
“And you’ve got the trans extremists, the eco extremists, the anti-capitalists, the degrowth-ers.
“They are about saying: ‘The way of life that we have in Britain or America, that is not the right way of life.
“‘Actually, we would rather support terrorists, we’d rather support authoritarian regimes’.”
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Former home secretary Suella Braverman had branded the protests “hate marches” before she was sacked by the Prime Minister.
Rishi Sunak, who succeeded Truss after the fallout from her disastrous mini-budget led to her becoming Britain’s shortest-serving prime minister, is reportedly looking to tighten the law to make it easier to ban marches and prosecute those glorifying terrorism.
More than 80 people have been charged in the UK over alleged hate crimes and violence linked to pro-Palestinian protests since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas conflict.
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