Ms Mahmood said: “I have approved the Metropolitan Police’s request to ban the Al Quds march.

“I am satisfied doing so is necessary to prevent serious public disorder, due to the scale of the protest and multiple counter-protests, in the context of the ongoing conflict in the Middle East.

“Should a stationary demonstration proceed, the police will be able to apply strict conditions. I expect to see the full force of the law applied to anyone spreading hatred and division instead of exercising their right to peaceful protest.”

Sir Mark Rowley, the Met Commissioner, requested the Home Office cancel the annual march and rally.

Sir Mark had determined the risk of serious disorder had reached a point which justified the march’s cancellation.

The Al-Quds Day rally is an annual march held on the last Friday in Ramadan and was started by the dead Ayatollah Ali Khameini’s predecessor, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

|

GETTY

It encourages Muslims worldwide to voice support for Palestine and opposition to Israel, with Jewish groups calling the event antisemitic.

The Islamic Human Rights Commission (IHRC), the organisers of the event, have claimed it is a peaceful event.

But cross-party support had risen for the event to be banned after conflict broke out in Iran.

Lord Austin of Dudley said: “I’m all for freedom of speech, but this is a hate march by fans of a theocratic Islamist dictatorship that recently slaughtered 36,000 of its own citizens who dared to come out and protest against it.”

Courts Minister Sarah Sackman was the first minister to call for a ban, saying the event had “no place in our society”.

She told Times Radio: “I’m clear that hate on marches like the Al Quds march has no place in British society. The authorities and the police should take the enforcement action needed against these marches.”

She would later tell LBC the event was “thoroughly anti-British”.

Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp wrote to the police commissioner last week to urge him to cancel the event.

He warned of an “increased risk of serious public disorder” and a “serious disruption to communities” if the event was to go ahead as planned.

And Reform UK’s deputy leader and business spokesman Richard Tice praised the decision.

He said: “These hate marches have been filled with antisemitism & divisive incitement since October 7. That makes them a breach of the law.”

This marks the first march to be banned since 2012, when a series of marches by the English Defence League (EDL) were blocked by the coalition Government.

Previous Al-Quds Day rallies have broke out in clashes with the police, with the Hezbollah flag being seen waved before the terror group’s proscription in 2019.

It is not the first time the event has faced calls to be banned, with the London Assembly passing a unanimous motion in 2017 to condemn the annual event.

However, London Mayor Sir Sadiq Khan said at the time it could not be banned so long as it was held “within the parameters of the law”.