Taylor Swift sparks fresh Labour row as ex-adviser DENIES Met Police were ‘bullied’ into offering security: ‘There was no threat!’

Labour’s intervention in the granting of high-level blue light security by key figures such as Mayor Sadiq Khan and the Attorney General has sparked widespread backlash in recent weeks.

However, Downing Street has affirmed that the final say was made by an “operational decision taken by the Metropolitan Police”.

Andrew Pierce shut down Paul Richards’s claim that there was a ‘real threat’ to Taylor Swift’s UK concerts

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Discussing the latest in the security scandal, former Labour Adviser Paul Richards claimed that if Swift was to have been “assassinated on British soil”, the country would be in an “absolute massive global diplomatic storm”.

Richards argued: “I do not begrudge her having a police escort while she was in the UK. I know she had to cancel a concert in Vienna because there was a threat, and we also know that the Manchester Arena was bombed when Ariana Grande was singing there as a result of a suicide bomber.

“So the threat is real. There should have been a police escort, and there was a genuine threat.”

In complete disagreement with Richards, host Bev Turner scolded his remarks and claimed he was trying to “set a precedent” for all A-listers entering the UK.

Taylor Swift had cancelled all of her concerts in Vienna due to a suspected terror attack

PA

Bev fumed: “You are setting the precedent for every A-list celebrity who arrives in this country to have a police escort on the remote possibility that it might be assassinated in a country where we don’t routinely have a lot of guns.”

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Richards asserted that there was a “threat” to Swift, hitting back: “Did she get this because she had a word in the ear of somebody up high? My answer to that is no because the British police make operational decisions based on threats and operational matters – the British Bobby cannot be bought or bribed.

“Therefore, she was right to have it and the process was right whereby she got that police escort.”

Andrew Pierce fiercely shut down Richard’s argument, making clear that the Met Police had confirmed via intelligence that there was “no threat” to Swift whilst she was in the UK.

Andrew fumed: “You’re not telling it as it is, because you know that the Metropolitan Police assessed and said there was no security risk. It then went to Taylor’s mother, who’s her manager, who said if we don’t get it we will cancel the concert, which was a threat.

Andrew Pierce clashed with Richards on Taylor Swift’s UK security arrangements

GB News

“The Mayor of London got involved, the Home Secretary got involved which is unprecedented, and even the Attorney General got involved – it’s unheard of. The Metropolitan Police, in my view, were bullied by ministers. They were indulging in a billionaire VIP, that’s what they were doing. This Government was indulging a billionaire VIP.”

Echoing Andrew’s thoughts, Bev suggested that if there was a genuine threat to Swift’s life, Starmer would have “made that clear” as the reason why she was granted the security.

Bev explained: “If there was a credible threat to her life, that is the first thing that would have come out when this erupted. Starmer would have said there was intelligence we were acting upon, and therefore we gave her the blue light protection. He hasn’t said that.

“This is simply a sequence of events whereby Keir Starmer and all of his acolytes like to bask in the reflective glory of celebrity that seems to be very seduced by expensive, glamorous things, and consequently he cannot shake this off at this stage.”