Sadiq Khan and Yvette Cooper ‘pressed’ police to give Taylor Swift royal-style escort through London and then received free tickets
Yvette Cooper and Sadiq Khan have been accused of pressing police to give Taylor Swift a royalty-style blue-light escort to Wembley.
The pop star performed eight nights at Wembley as part of her Eras World Tour.
Swift’s mum and manager, Andrea, is said to have threatened to axe the August shows unless a police convoy was provided.
However, officers from the Met Police were reluctant to grant her the VIP service, which comes at huge expense to the taxpayer.
Senior officers agreed to it after personal interventions by Home Secretary Yvette Cooper and London Mayor Sadiq Khan, reports The Sun. It followed a foiled suicide bomb plot by Islamist extremists in Vienna the previous week.
VIP protection is usually for senior royalty and politicians, as the Special Escort Group (SEG) of motorcyclists has a strict policy of not being used for private individuals.
Former-met commander John O’Connor said: “Police should be left alone to make operational decisions. The SEG is dedicated to the very serious business of protecting the Royal Family, senior government ministers and foreign heads of state. This is an abuse of an elite service.”
An intelligence assessment was then carried out by UK police and MI5 following the foiled plot in Austria, but there was no information of a threat to the US star’s Wembley shows. However, sources said her mum demanded a police escort for the journey to and from Wembley.
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A source told The Sun: “There was a great deal of concern about security in the Swift camp and they were threatening to call off the shows unless there was a police escort. The SEG has a specific role and do not provide security cover for any private individuals, no matter how important.”
After the initial refusal, it is understood the office of Met Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley intervened with the Home Secretary stressed to the Met that any cancellation would be economically damaging and embarrassing. SEG controllers are said to have remained insistent.
A source said: “At this point Mayor Khan stepped in and contacted the Met. The Mayor had apparently been contacted by the Home Secretary’s office and Swift’s management. The involvement of the Home Secretary and Mayor effectively amounts to applying pressure.
“The SEG finally agreed to make an exception to their policy and the Vienna terrorist arrests were used to justify the decision.”
The Met said: “The Met is operationally independent. Our decision-making is based on a thorough assessment of threat, risk and harm and circumstances of each case.”
A Home Office source said: “This was an operational decision for the police. Of course, when events of this scale take place you would expect the Government, the Mayor’s office and the Met Police to work together to ensure they can be held safely and securely.”
A spokesman for the Mayor said: “We don’t comment on the Met’s security arrangements.”