Exclusive: Met Police snubs fundraising drive for London firearms officers backed by Nigel Farage
Plus: City Hall pushes for al fresco, the Tube goes dark, and the exact spot with the most robberies on Oxford Street
Morning — it’s a fundraiser the Met Police seemingly won’t touch: Operation Coffee Break. An online campaign to “buy a coffee” for every armed officer in London has drawn thousands in donations over the past fortnight — but, we’ve learned, the Met isn’t biting. Perhaps it’s the backers — Nigel Farage, Suella Braverman and other right-wing figures. Or maybe it’s the timing, having launched just days after it emerged the firearms officer who shot Chris Kaba in Streatham is facing a misconduct hearing. A lukewarm response to Operation Coffee Break leads your round-up below.
Plus: City Hall pushes for al fresco, the Tube goes dark, and the exact spot with the most robberies on Oxford Street.
What we’ve spied
☕️ The Met Police has said it will refuse cash donations from a fundraising drive for firearms officers in London that has been backed by high-profile right-wing figures, including Nigel Farage and Suella Braverman. The Met has also asked the public to "refrain from donating" to Operation Coffee Break, an online crowdfunding campaign that's so far raised £7,800 to "buy a coffee for every armed response officer in London". The campaign, organised by a group called the Public Safety Foundation, says it’s aiming to "give a moment of appreciation" to the officers who "perform one of the most demanding roles in public safety, often under intense pressure and scrutiny". It launched on May 4, just days after the announcement that the firearms officer who shot and killed Chris Kaba during a police stop in Streatham in 2022 will face a misconduct hearing. Sgt Martyn Blake had been acquitted of Kaba's murder at a criminal trial last year, but he now faces potential disciplinary action, which could include dismissal.
Several prominent right-wing politicians have publicly endorsed Operation Coffee Break, and while its organisers claim to be "community-led", they have links to the right. On Sunday the leader of Reform UK, Nigel Farage, featured in an endorsement video posted by the Public Safety Foundation on X. "We are behind all of you brave men and women in MO19 who put yourselves in harm's way every single day," he says in the video. "And you know what, the worst of it is, if anything goes wrong, you guys get the blame. You get no extra pay whatsoever". Another endorsement has come from Suella Braverman, who was sacked as home secretary by Rishi Sunak in 2023 for criticising the Met's handling of pro-Palestine protests in central London. "A very good cause," she said in a repost of the campaign on X on Wednesday. Former policing minister and Croydon MP Chris Philp and former MP and prominent Brexiteer Steve Baker have also backed the campaign, appearing in the online supporters list with donations of £40 and £20 respectively.
The Spy went to the Met Police for comment on the campaign, asking if it would be accepting the donations. A spokesperson told us that "while we appreciate the generous gesture set up for London's firearms officers, we have not received any contact from the organisers". They added:
We will have to politely decline any cash donation due to our policy, however we are able to accept small gestures, such as buying an on-duty officer a hot drink.
We ask that you refrain from donating to any third party as we will not be receiving the donation.
Thank you to all of those who donated, we appreciate the kind thought.
We followed up, asking if the force's ability to accept "small gestures" could include the possibility of working with the campaign to, for instance, park a coffee van near armed officers and hand out free coffees, as organisers have suggested. We did not hear back by the time of publication.
The director of the Public Safety Foundation is Oliver Laurence, a former police officer of 18 years who has become a podcaster and media commentator, once appearing on GB News to discuss tougher punishment for shoplifters. Meanwhile, the organisation’s founder is Rory Geoghegan, who worked as a special advisor to, er, Suella Braverman while she was home secretary. Go figure.
🍷 Sir Sadiq Khan has announced £300,000 in funding to encourage al fresco dining and later opening hours across London venues this summer. The mayor's Summer Streets Fund was announced on Monday, with applications open to all borough councils. Announcing the cash, Khan said: “London’s world-class range of restaurants, cafes and bars is part of what makes our city special, but too often they have found themselves restricted through bureaucracy and rules constraining their growth. This new £300,000 Summer Streets Fund will help to kickstart al fresco dining and extend opening hours this summer, allowing the industry to thrive.” From our round-robin of borough press offices, we got confirmation that Sutton, Ealing, Newham, Barking & Dagenham, Haringey and Enfield councils were considering applying. But among those staying quiet was Westminster council — not a great surprise, considering how tetchy things are locally over bringing back al fresco to Soho. The mayor's fund comes not long after he was granted new powers by the Labour government that will allow him to override borough council licensing decisions, just as he can with planning, in a bid to boost nightlife.
⚡ London's travel watchdog has criticised TfL for its handling of the power outage that caused hours of disruption on Monday. The outage hit at around 2.30pm and led to the suspension of the Bakerloo, Waterloo & City, Suffragette and Weaver lines, while stations including Marble Arch, Tottenham Court Road and Covent Garden were closed. The next day, London TravelWatch issued a statement that criticised "the lack of information and updates" on TfL's social media feeds, as well as the fact TfL's website crashed due to increased online traffic. "We accept that incidents like this can occur but do expect TfL to do much better when it comes to communicating with the millions of people who are reliant on their services," a spokesperson for London TravelWatch said. The cause of the fault has since been revealed as a fire at an electrical substation in southwest London. In a statement sent to the Spy, TfL customer services director Emma Strain said:
I apologise to our customers who were affected by the power issue caused by a failure of supply from National Grid on the network yesterday and who had any issues accessing our travel information.
All of the rail services that were affected were restored yesterday and have been operating as normal today.
We continue to look carefully at how we best notify customers about service issues in real time, this includes being able to use notifications in our TfL Go app to communicate with customers, and in future enabling more personalised notifications based on our customers’ individual journeys.
📽️ The iconic Prince Charles Cinema in central London has been listed as an asset of community value — a win for those defending it against potential eviction and redevelopment. Earlier this year the PCC revealed it was in a battle with its landlord — London property billionaire Asif Aziz and his company Criterion Capital. The cinema claimed it was facing an excessively high rent hike and a new clause in its contract that would allow it to be evicted at short notice. A huge outpouring of support for the cinema followed, and now it's got some form of official protection, after Westminster council granted it community asset status. The designation means that, in the event the landlord does sell up, the community will have a chance to buy first and save the cinema. Meanwhile, a petition in support of the PCC has now reached 164,000 signatures.
🟢 London's most prominent Green politician, Zack Polanski, has announced he's making a bid to become the party's leader. A London assembly member since 2021, Polanski has launched his campaign with a platform of "eco-populism", and perhaps his time at City Hall gives some insight into what he’s got in store. Climate and air quality issues have featured prominently in his contributions at mayoral question time — Polanski backed Khan's ULEZ expansion, but has called on the mayor to go further and implement pay-per-mile road charging in the capital. He's also introduced motions at the London Assembly declaring a climate emergency and calling for a city-wide programme to retrofit emission-leaking homes. His other big policy push has been universal basic income, and he's worked on getting Londoners involved in pilot schemes. But, unfortunately, we can’t restrain ourselves from sharing Polanski’s other career highlight: performing hypnotherapy to 'enlarge' a woman's breasts. More City Hall politics: Khan's deputy mayor for climate, former Hackney councillor Mete Coban, is being accused by the Times of “faking a football career on social media”.
🏗️ PLANNING CORNER 🏗️ Plans for a six-storey flat block on a well-to-do street in Camden have some objectors in high places — firstly the lawyer Justine Thornton, who's married to Labour's net zero minister and former leader Ed Miliband. According to the Camden New Journal, Thornton, who lives in Dartmouth Park in a £3m Victorian townhouse, has written to Camden council urging it to block the development, which will involve the demolition of a 1930s red-brick house on the street. She's quoted as saying: “No objection to the principle of redevelopment, particularly in the context of the need for more housing. However, the design appears to be too tall, too bulky and too dense". So much for her husband's boss's motto: build, build, build. Another famous objector to the plans is actor Benedict Cumberbatch, who apparently writes: "Approval would set a precedent. For example, could I now demolish my property and replace it with flats and not require the same extensive planning approval?" Heaven forbid.
Elsewhere in planning: a redevelopment project billed as Peckham's 'biggest in a generation' will be decided by the national planning inspectorate, after developer Berkley Homes decided to bypass the local process. Berkley Homes has proposed redeveloping the Aylesham shopping centre in the centre of Peckham into 850 homes, but the plans have proved controversial, given that only 12% will be affordable. Southwark's planning committee had been due to make a decision on Aylesham in the coming weeks. The council said it was "very disappointed" by Berkley Homes's decision.
Also: City Hall has overridden Tower Hamlets council and approved a 46-storey tower in Canary Wharf containing more than 900 student bedrooms. Deputy mayor Jules Pipe said the project would "play an important role in helping London meet its annual housing targets".
🔍 And finally, we leave you with:
A map showing the density of robbery along Oxford Street (LinkedIn)
Londoners treating IKEA Oxford Street like a free Airbnb (TikTok)
A Tube map of grassroots music venues — a low-res image on X here and a high-res one on Google Drive here
A £3m upgrade to the Princess Diana playground in west London (BBC)
London’s great chicken shop war (The Londoner)
Upcoming visitor days at Twickenham’s Eel Pie Island (Londonist)
The Young Vic announcing its first season under a new artistic director (Time Out)
On London technically being a forest (TikTok)
Tom Cruise standing on the roof of the BFI IMAX by Waterloo (TikTok)
Clapton not being real (TikTok)
London’s most underrated pizza spot (TikTok)
Chris Philp isn't just a former minister – he's now shadow home secretary. Which would suggest this stunt has the formal support of the Tory party, as well as of Reform.