Questions were being asked on Sunday as John “two jobs” Biggs displayed a very relaxed attitude to the second Britain First demonstration outside the East London Mosque in a fortnight.
It was around 1.15pm on Sunday that just over a dozen members of Britain First began a protest outside the East London Mosque in Whitechapel. Waving Union Jack flags, they tried to block the entrance to the Mosque as worshippers were leaving the Mosque and children came out of Saturday School. Once they saw the protest, worshippers did not leave – and a large crowd formed, blocking the cycle lane and spilling out onto Whitechapel Road itself. This left cyclists, drivers and pedestrians in danger.
An initial contingent of police arrived, who quickly called for reinforcements – who did not arrive. The crowd swelled as fellow Muslims came down to defend the Mosque. It was also joined by non-Muslims who wanted to stand with the Muslims and show they opposed the anti-Muslim demonstrators. Particularly prominent was the Reverend Alan Green, who dropped everything and dashed down to the Mosque as soon as he heard what was going on.
The protestors tried to act the big guys, hurling out racist and Islamophobic comments and trying to incite the crowd of Muslims and supporters to react violently. Although many of the comments, and the presence of the protestors themselves (this cannot have been an authorised demonstration), probably constituted arrestable offences, none of the protestors was arrested. It may have been that the police felt their numbers did not make it possible for them to make any arrests.
This was actually the second protest outside the Mosque in as many weeks. Two men and Britain First Deputy Leader Jayda Fransen had staged a rather feeble protest on 1st March, while a small number of supporters looked on. They stood outside the Mosque with a banner, shouting slogans. The police arrived about a quarter of an hour later, and the trio left after a brief disagreement with the police over their right to hold their protest.
First to ask Labour’s John Biggs what he was doing about this Sunday’s incident was Cllr Oliur Rahman, Leader of the Independent Group which forms the opposition on the Council. He tweeted to John Biggs, pointing out that Britain First were outside the London Mosque and asking Biggs “what are u doing to stop the racists coming to our borough”.
John Biggs tweeted back, “We defeat them w leadership, unity & peaceful but clear challenge. They want to divide us – don’t be tempted.” It is hard to imagine a more patronising reply. What on earth was Biggs advocating? That Muslims resist the temptation to defend the Mosque and just go home, ignoring the banner-waving thugs shouting “we want our country back”? That Muslims form an orderly queue outside the Mosque and chant “our leaders advise us to be united and peaceful; this is our challenge to you”? That the Muslims strike up a united chorus of “The Wheels on the Bus”?
Locals were also concerned about the actions of the police. Had they authorised the Britain First demonstration? If so, had they told anyone they had done so? If not, why didn’t they try to arrest the demonstrators? Fortunately, local community leaders and leaders from the Mosque were able to keep the crowd under control, and it is to their great credit that they managed to do this. However, for a while there was a serious risk that the situation could have escalated and become very nasty, with a risk of violence occurring. Did the police not see this risk? Do they think they did enough to protect the community against the violence which could have occurred? Do they expect the Mosque to organise its own defence now – and to keep the crowd under control?
John Biggs’s reaction to the protest outside the Mosque is in sharp contrast with what the local community has come to expect from the Borough’s mayor. As one observer at the Mosque put it, “Mayor Lutfur Rahman used to stop the EDL coming into Tower Hamlets. Why isn’t John Biggs interested in stopping the ‘Britain First’ mob? The EDL and Britain First are both right wing hate groups. Why do we have to put up with them? And why do we have to put up with a mayor who won’t even condemn them, let alone come down and stand with us at the Mosque?”
A second observer outside the Mosque said, “We have to thank the Rev Alan Green for coming to stand in solidarity with us – not for the first time. We know we can rely on the Reverend – and he knows that if he ever needs us, we will help him too. Can we rely on John Biggs? Not today, it seems.”
There was little doubt among those outside the Mosque that Mayor Lutfur Rahman would have dropped everything to get to the Mosque when trouble broke out – and that he would have had the Borough Police Commander in his office at 9am on Monday morning to find out why no police reinforcements had turned up, why no arrests had been made – and whether the police were prepared for future protests. Even if John Biggs had genuinely not been able to get to the Mosque while Britain First were still there, he could have said he would do the same – liaise with the police to find out what went wrong on Sunday and plan for the future. But he didn’t: he just lectured Cllr Oli Rahman on beating the racists with a peaceful but clear challenge.
Perhaps one reason why John Biggs didn’t feel able to go down to the Mosque was that he had been out that morning on a Labour Party men’s canvass in Bromley South ward. Cllr Khales Uddin Ahmed tweeted a picture of John Biggs, together with Labour Party councillors Edgar, Helal, Hassell and Peck. It is not clear why no women Labour Party members joined them on the trip out this morning. It seems that John Biggs has the time to go out trying to get votes for Labour candidates, but does not have the time to go into the community when it is under threat.
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