AMNESTY have condemned the UK Government’s plan to expand police powers to ban protests, calling the “ludicrous proposal” a rehash of measures previously ruled unlawful.
It comes in response to Sunday's announcement with police set to be given greater powers to restrict protests by allowing them to consider the “cumulative impact” of repeated demonstrations.
The measures follow frequent pro-Palestinian demonstrations, including an event in London on Saturday which saw almost 500 arrests.
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said repeated large-scale protests had caused “considerable fear” for the Jewish community.
The UK Government intends to 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, to impose conditions on public processions and assemblies.
The Home Secretary will also review existing legislation to ensure powers are sufficient and are being applied consistently by police forces – this will include powers to ban protests outright.
However, the UK government has previously proposed amendments to Sections 12 and 14 of the Public Order Act 1986, spearheaded by Suella Braverman in 2023.
In May 2024, the High Court ruled that certain regulations issued under these amendments were not lawful. The court found that defining "serious disruption" to include "more than minor" disruption was incompatible with the original intent of the Public Order Act 1986, which required a higher threshold for such disruptions.
Under the changes being proposed, if a protest has taken place at the same site for weeks on end and caused repeated disorder, the police will have the authority to impose conditions such as ordering organisers to hold the event somewhere else.
Anyone who breaches the conditions will risk arrest and prosecution.
Tom Southerden, Amnesty International UK’s law and human rights director, said: “The ‘new’ powers announced by the Home Secretary today are not new at all – they are a reheat of powers that the last Government tried to push through under regulations that the courts found to be unlawful.
“They bear no relation to yesterday’s Defend Our Juries protest, which was at a new location and was targeted at the Government over its draconian misuse of anti-terror laws.
“Is the Government seriously suggesting that people protesting its decisions should only be able to do that a limited number of times? If it is, it is a ludicrous proposal, and if not, this announcement is just a cynical attempt at looking tough.
“Amnesty hopes that the Home Secretary’s threatened ‘review’ of the state of protest law in this country will take into account that there have been three anti-protest bills in as many years and that the Government is putting the fourth through Parliament as we speak.
“However, it seems that when clamping down on peaceful protest, this Government will always find yet another way to restrict this basic human right.”
Mahmood will write to chief constables on Sunday, thanking them for their swift and professional response following Thursday’s attack at the Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation Synagogue in Crumpsall, Manchester, and at protests across the country.
She will encourage them to use the full range of powers available to them to prevent and respond to public disorder.
“The right to protest is a fundamental freedom in our country," Mahmood said on Sunday.
“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.”
Greens leader Zack Polanski took to social media, describing the proposal as "a grim and dangerous over reach".
"This is a government that have lost the moral argument and are still selling arms to Israel. Now further cracking down on dissent. Absolutely the opposite of what they should be doing - so of course this is what the Labour Government choose."
Former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn also condemned the move, telling followers he would see them at "the largest demonstration for Palestine in British history" on October 11.
He wrote: "A disgraceful assault on the right to protest. The UK Government is complicit in genocide. Anyone who understands the meaning of these words knows full well why we continue to speak out. "
