Protests leave GMP with £2m black hole

HUGE COST OF POLICING DEMONSTRATIONS

- By DAMON WILKINSON

THE cost of policing protests has left GMP with a £2m funding black hole, it has been revealed.

Since the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023, and Israel’s subsequent invasion of Gaza, there had been protests in Greater Manchester ‘every single weekend,’ deputy mayor Kate Green said on Thursday.

Those demonstrations include pro-Palestine and pro-Israeli rallies and also several anti-immigration protests outside asylum seeker hotels.

But that has left the force’s operational contingency fund ‘exhausted,’ she said.