MPs have approved laws that will make it easier for police to stop protests that are seen to be "disruptive". The move has sparked anger from critics who say the new law is moving the country toward "fascism".
The law change will lower the threshold of what is considered to be a "serious disruption" to community life. Protests previously had to cause "significant" and "prolonged" disruption but the wording has now been changed to "more than minor".
The House of Commons voted 277 to 217, a majority of 60, in favour of the law.
Speaking to MPs, Home Secretary Suella Braverman said: “People have a right to get to work on time free from obstruction, a right to enjoy sporting events without interruption and a right to get to hospital. The roads belong to the British people, not a selfish minority who treat them like their personal property.
"The impact of these disruptors is huge. Over the last six weeks alone Just Stop Oil carried out 156 slow marches around London.
“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 – £4.5million in just six weeks on top of the £14m spent last year.
“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.”
Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper said the police alreadh had laws to deal with protests that involved slow walking in the road. 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 from 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.”
The SNP's 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.”
