Police to get extra powers in crackdown on protests

Police are to be given greater powers to restrict repeated protests, the home secretary has announced, hours after hundreds were arrested at a Palestine Action demonstration in London, with the protest group Defend Our Juries (DOJ) promising civil disobedience in key cities and towns across Britain in response.

- KATE DEVLIN WHITEHALL EDITOR

Saturday’s event went ahead despite calls from Sir Keir Starmer and others in the wake of the terror attack on a synagogue in Manchester during which two people were killed. The home secretary Shabana Mahmood said repeated large-scale protests had caused “considerable fear” for the Jewish community.

She said: “The right to protest is a fundamental freedom in our country. However, this freedom must be balanced with the freedom of their neighbours to live their lives without fear. Large, repeated protests can leave sections of our country, particularly religious communities, feeling unsafe, intimidated and scared to leave their homes.

“This has been particularly evident in relation to the considerable fear within the Jewish community, which has been expressed to me on many occasions in these recent difficult days. These changes mark an important step in ensuring we protect the right to protest while ensuring all feel safe in this country.”

In the wake of the arrests in London on Saturday, Amnesty International said it should not be the job of the police to arrest people “peacefully sitting down”, and that the arrests amounted to a breach of the UK’s human rights obligations.

As part of the new crackdown ministers will amend Sections 12 and 14 of the Public Order Act 1986 to explicitly allow the police to take account of the cumulative impact of frequent protests on local areas. The home secretary will also review existing legislation to ensure powers are both sufficient and being applied consistently by police forces – this will include powers to ban protests outright.