Water cannon may be deployed today in London for a pro-Brexit march.
This is untrue. The Met Police do not own any water cannon and they are not currently authorised for use in England and Wales. Both the Met Police and the Mayor of London’s office confirmed they will not be using water cannon.
"There are reports that water cannon may be deployed tomorrow in London”
Gerard Batten MEP, 28 March 2019
The pro-Brexit “March to Leave” is set to arrive in Westminster around 4pm this afternoon. The UKIP MEP for London, Gerard Batten, has suggested that the marchers could be met with water cannon when they arrive.
This is flatly untrue. The Metropolitan Police does not have any water cannon, and they are not currently authorised for use in England and Wales.
The Mayor of London’s Office (which oversees policing in London) approved the purchase of three water cannon in 2014, but they were sold off again late last year without ever having been used.
We spoke to the Mayor’s Office and it confirmed to us that no water cannon will be used in today’s march.
The Metropolitan Police has also stated today that: “No water cannons are owned or used by the Met Police. Any suggestion that we are intending to use water cannons or seeking to agitate any protestors is baseless and false.”
This article is part of our work fact checking potentially false pictures, videos and stories on Facebook. You can read more about this—and find out how to report Facebook content—here. For the purposes of that scheme, we’ve rated this claim as false because the Mayor of London and the Metropolitan Police confirmed it was not true.
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