Should pro-Palestinian march on Remembrance Day be banned? Here’s what Yahoo readers think

Yahoo UK’s poll of the week lets you vote and indicate your strength of feeling on one of the week’s hot topics. After two days the poll closes and, each Friday, we publish and analyse the results, giving readers the chance to see how polarising a topic has become and if their view chimes with other Yahoo UK readers.

A pro-Palestine march is due to take place in London on Remembrance Day. (PA) (Mark Kerrison)

In the build-up to Remembrance Day, this week Yahoo UK asked if you are concerned by the prospect of pro-Palestinian protesters marching through London on Saturday.

The planned protest has sparked controversy, with home secretary Suella Braverman suggesting that the Met police was “playing favourites” with pro-Palestinian protestors after refusing to ban the march.

Her comments, which were said to have not been signed off by Downing Street, went further than her colleagues, though Rishi Sunak had said it would be “disrespectful” to protest on a day honouring Britain’s war dead.

Yahoo News UK asked our readers whether you think the march should be banned on Remembrance Day.

Here are the final results:

Yahoo News UK

Yahoo News UK

Our poll, which ran from 12pm on Tuesday to 4pm on Thursday asked: “Should the pro-Palestinian march on Remembrance Day be banned?”.

It received 20,603 votes and showed, overwhelmingly, that Yahoo readers who took the poll agreed with those calling for the protest to be banned – 73% voted yes, 21% voted no, and 6% indicated they were undecided.

73% voted in favour of a ban, 21% were against a ban, and 6% were undecidedYahoo News UK

Yahoo UK readers were also asked: “How strongly do you feel about a potential ban?” to gauge your strength of feeling on this issue on a range of one to 10.

That had a total of 11,016 votes. The most commonly selected option was ’10’ and the average score was 8.6 – suggesting Yahoo readers feel very strongly about the issue.

The average strength-of-feeling score on this issue was 8.6Yahoo News UK

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The results of Yahoo’s poll differ from a YouGov poll for Sky News which suggested that half of people in Britain think pro-Palestinian marches should not be allowed to take place in London on Armistice Day, despite more people overall sympathising with Palestinians than Israel.

According to their poll of 2,080 adults, carried out for Sky News on the 7-8 November, a third of people asked thought the planned protests should be allowed to go ahead.

Our original poll article can be found here

Tens of thousands of people are set to take to the streets in London on Saturday.

The planned marched has sparked a political row, with calls for Rishi Sunak to sack Suella Braverman after she published an article accusing police of bias over protests in support of Palestine.

Braverman’s article in The Times, in which she claimed there is a perception some senior officers “play favourites”, was apparently not signed off by Number 10, sparking claims that the Home Secretary is ‘out of control’.

Met Police commissioner Mark Rowley had come under pressure to ban the march, but said after looking at intelligence, the legal threshold to block it had not been met.

Following a meeting with him, the Prime Minister accepted the protest will go ahead but vowed to hold Sir Mark “accountable” for his decision to allow it to.