MPs have approved new powers for police to crack down on slow-walking protests amid warnings the government is veering toward “fascism”.
The House of Commons voted in favour of measures to lower the threshold for what is considered “serious disruption” by 277 to 217, a majority of 60.
Home Secretary Suella Braverman said the changes “provide the police with the powers to impose conditions on harmful protests” and “provide further clarity” on when they can act to shut down demonstrations.
But Labour MP Richard Burgon branded the move an “authoritarian clampdown” while SNP cabinet member Alison Thewliss said the government is “slow walking” the Commons towards “fascism”.
The action comes against the backdrop of protests by environmental groups like Just Stop Oil (JSO), Insulate Britain and Extinction Rebellion.
The government says their tactics, such as blocking roads, slow marching and gluing themselves to objects, are costing the taxpayer millions and diverting police attention from serious crime.
Ms Braverman told MPs: “Over the last six weeks alone, Just Stop Oil (JSO) carried out 156 slow marches around London.
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“This has required over 13,770 police officer shifts, that’s over 13,000 police shifts that could have been stopping robbery, violent crime or anti-social behaviour, and the cost to the taxpayer is an outrage – £4.5 million in just six weeks on top of the £14 million spent last year.”
She added that “In some cases, the protests have aggravated the public so much that they’ve taken matters into their own hands”.
“They’ve lost their patience, the police must be able to stop this happening and it’s our job in government to give them the powers to do so.”
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Police already have the power to clamp down on protests that are likely to cause “serious disruption to the life of the community”.
The controversial Public Order Act, passed just before the King’s coronation in May, introduced new offences for “locking on” or being equipped to do so, as well as for tunnelling and obstructing transport works.
The changes the government want to introduce would lower the threshold of what counts as serious disruption from “significant” and “prolonged” to “more than minor”.
The new regulations would also cover the cumulative impact of repeated protests while the definition of “community” would be broadened to any citizens who might be affected, rather than only those who live or work in the vicinity.
The proposals came in for heavy criticism from the main opposition parties.
Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper said there are already laws to deal with slow walk road protests.
She said: “This is not about the seriously disruptive Just Stop Oil protests which are rightly already against the law.
“Instead, what it is doing is giving the police the power to prevent any and every campaign group protesting outside a local library or swimming pool that is about to be closed because it may be a little more than minor.
“This makes it harder for law-abiding, peaceful campaigners who want to work with the police to organise a limited protest – something we should all want people to do.”
For the SNP, Alison Thewliss said: “It seems to me that the only slow walking that we should be concerned about in this place is the slow walking that this Government is taking this House in towards a state of lack of democracy and of fascism.”
And Green Party MP Caroline Lucas described the regulations as “oppressive, anti-democratic and downright wrong”.
But DUP MP Sammy Wilson said it was “exaggerated” to describe the changes as fascism.
He said: “This is not fascism. This is about the Government having to make a decision as to what do we do to allow in a democracy people to make their point – maybe you don’t like the point they’re making – and on the other hand stop those who are impacted by it being impacted, where the protesters have made it quite clear that’s what their main aim is anyway.”
The House of Lords will vote on the changes on Tuesday.
Peers previously voted down the measures after the government attempted to add them to the Public Order Bill in February.
They have been brought back to parliament as regulations – something by convention the House of Lords does not usually vote against.
The move has been criticised by the upper chamber.
Labour peer Lord Coaker said the government has not addressed concerns raised about the proposals, while the Green Party’s Barones Jones has put down a “fatal motion” to block the changes.
