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Met accused of targeting pro-Palestine protesters in searches
The Guardian
|September 01, 2025
The Metropolitan police have used controversial powers to stop and search protesters almost 50 times since they were introduced, with nearly all instances at a peaceful pro-Palestine demonstration, a civil liberties group has found.
Police in England and Wales can carry out "suspicionless" stop and searches in relation to protest activity under section 11 of the Public Order Act 2023.
Analysis by the campaign group Big Brother Watch found the Met had used the powers against 47 demonstrators, 40 of them at a Gaza protest by Youth Demand in July last year which began in Russell Square in London, which is in Keir Starmer's Holborn and St Pancras constituency.
Jake Hurfurt, the group's head of research and investigation, said: "When the Public Order Act was passed civil liberties groups warned that these draconian new powers could be used to stifle protest rights.
This story is from the September 01, 2025 edition of The Guardian.
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