A LEADING councillor has joined calls for a change in the law over protests in the wake of the violent scenes outside Harrow Central Mosque.

Councillor Susan Hall, deputy leader of the council, said: “The government have to look at this very quickly to see what they can do, to say what is lawful and what isn't, and give police greater powers.

“They need to look at the whole situation – we are going into a new realm, where loads of groups are calling themselves lots of different names when they are more or less the same thing.

“From the left and from the right, they are all as bad as each other and we in the middle are left cleaning up the mess.”

She joined figures including Tony McNulty, MP for Harrow East, who have said the laws for controlling protests need serious review.

Cllr Hall said the police work on Friday, September 11, was exemplary despite officers being bombarded with missiles, and she said the government should change the law to give them more power in those kinds of situations.

She went on to send a message to Stephen Gash, organiser of the anti-Islam protest which sparked the violent scenes of two weeks ago, who has said he is willing to return for another demonstration with 2,000 supporters.

Cllr Hall said: “He is not welcome in Harrow, nor are his right wing friends.

“If it was peaceful protest, we would support it all the time, but with these groups there is no intention for peaceful protest. Similarly, the groups who turn out to defend the mosque have no intention of being peaceful.

“This sort of nonsense should not be allow to carry on.”