Former Met Chief Reveals Police Fight With Chinese Secret Services Over Queen's Carriage

23 May 2019, 15:23

The former Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police revealed Met Police officers were involved in a fight with Chinese secret services when President Xi visited the Queen.

Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe was speaking to Nick Ferrari ahead of President Trump's visit to the UK about the difficulties of policing such a complex event.

And he revealed a remarkable fight occurred when he was in charge of the Met during the state visit of China's President Xi.

Speaking of the Chinese security agencies, he said: "They were quite aggressive.

"You might remember that on Horseguards, one part of the ceremony when the state visit arrives is they do a review of the guards. They walk up and down the line. I, as Commissioner was stood there along with the heads of the Army and other people. It's a sign of respect and welcome to the country.

"On this occasion, the Chinese security people decide to get into the carriage. Bearing in mind that in the carriage was their President and our Queen.

"We said 'I'm sorry but you're not doing that'. And then there was a little bit of a fight. Not so far that they ended up getting arrested.

"We won and it was fine in the end.

"But the bottom line is, we have ways of doing things. They didn't particularly agree. We'd sorted it out beforehand, we thought. They thought they were going to seize the ground and we made sure they didn't."