Proposed new police powers ‘a draconian threat to the right to protest’

The government’s Crime and Policing Bill returns to the commons for its final stages on Tuesday 14 April. MPs will consider lords amendments, including a proposal that will grant the police sweeping new powers to restrict or effectively ban protests (Lords Amendment 312).

The government introduced Amendment 312 in the lords without a vote. This means it has so far avoided scrutiny or debate in the commons. Andy McDonald MP has tabled a motion to oppose the amendment. His motion has broad cross-party support, reflecting the widespread opposition to the government’s extreme proposal. MPs will have their only chance to push it to a vote on 14 April.

‘Cumulative disruption’

If it becomes law, Lords Amendment 312 would require the police to take into account any “cumulative disruption” caused by past or future planned protests in the same “area” when deciding whether to impose restrictions.

The amendment doesn’t define what constitutes the same ‘area’. It could include an entire town or the whole of central London. And it won’t matter whether the protests involve the same cause or people.

For example, an anti-racist march could be blocked from Whitehall because a farmers’ protest happened there six months earlier. Or police could restrict a Pride march because a far-right demonstration recently happened in the same town.

Although government statements make clear these powers have come forward in response to the mass national marches for Palestinian rights since October 2023, the impact of this change of law would be wide-ranging on protest groups in general.

Over 45 civil society organisations have joined forces to demand the government withdraws this proposal. These include the Trades Union Congress, Liberty and Greenpeace. They join more than 100 leading legal scholars and lawyers and over 100 Members of Parliament.

The UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights to Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and of Association, Gina Romero, has also warned that she has serious concerns on the knock-on effects of the proposals. For example, authoritarian governments around the world could use them as a template.

Trying to make protest toothless

Even before this proposal, the UK’s protest laws had attracted widespread criticism. Extensive police powers already exist which severely limit the right to protest. These include the previous government’s Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 and the Public Order Act 2023.

Lords Amendment 312 follows a succession of illiberal anti-protest laws. It represents a major assault on the freedoms of expression, association and assembly that underpin protest rights. This government, or any future one, could use it to effectively stamp out political demonstrations, actions that are part of industrial disputes, and protests altogether.

Effective protests often recur in the same or similar places. And no protest movement has ever brought about change through a one-off demonstration. Landmark democratic struggles, such as the campaign for women’s suffrage and the movement against apartheid in South Africa, all relied on the ‘cumulative’ impact of repeated protests over many years.

On Monday 13 April at 3pm, campaigners and a cross-party group of MPs handed in petitions condemning the government’s attacks on our right to protest, totalling over 40,000 signatures. On Tuesday 14 April, Palestine Solidarity Campaign has called a demonstration outside parliament at 6pm to coincide with any vote on Lords Amendment 312.

Ryvka Barnard, deputy director of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, said:

This proposal should alarm everyone who believes that democratic freedoms must be defended. It represents the government’s latest draconian attempt to erode our civil liberties in order for it to maintain its complicity in Israel’s ongoing genocide against the Palestinian people.

The UK’s political and military support for Israel’s genocide in Gaza, its continued ethnic cleansing in the illegally occupied West Bank, and illegal strikes on Iran and Lebanon, continue to cause huge public outrage and fuel the ongoing protests involving hundreds of thousands of ordinary people across the country.

Instead of listening to the public and addressing its responsibilities under international law, the government is trying to repress protest through ever more authoritarian laws.

The right to protest, including in solidarity with the Palestinian people, is a precious democratic principle under threat from this government, and it must be defended.

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Featured image via the Canary