Sunak says the UK is descending into mob rule. Critics accuse him of undermining protest rights

LONDON (AP) — Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said Britain is descending into “mob rule” because of the pressures created by protests against the Israel-Hamas war — words criticized as alarmist by a human rights group.

Sunak told a meeting of police leaders on Wednesday that there was a ”pattern of increasingly violent and intimidatory behavior” that’s intended to “shout down free debate and stop elected representatives doing their job.”

“There is a growing consensus that mob rule is replacing democratic rule,” he said, according to a transcript released by the prime minister’s office. “And we’ve got to collectively, all of us, change that urgently.”

Tom Southerden of Amnesty International said Thursday that talk of mob rule “wildly exaggerates the issue and risks delegitimizing the rights of peaceful protest.”