Hundreds gathered in Manchester this afternoon as part of a ‘Kill the Bill’ protest.
The city centre was brought to a standstill as large crowds marched through the streets on Saturday (January 15).
It came as part of a demonstration against the new police and crime bill.
The controversial Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill proposes to give police in England and Wales more power to impose conditions on non-violent protests.
Hundreds met up in St Peter’s Square at 1pm.
A heavy police presence surrounded the large gathering but it is not believed officers intervened in the demonstrations.
The march was organised by a range of different groups, including members from ACORN Manchester, All Black Lives Matter Manchester, Cops Off Campus University of Manchester, Extinction Rebellion Manchester and more.
The protest made its way through Piccadilly Gardens, Market Street and Deansgate before returning to St Peter’s Square.
The march disrupted public transport, with many trams, buses and taxis left stuck among the crowds.
Chants could be heard echoing around Manchester as hundreds carrying placards and banners made their way through the city.
Flares were also set off.
Speaking at the march, one protester told the Manchester Evening News: “This bill basically is an attempt to crack down on peaceful protests.
"We're here to say basically we're in Britain. It's part of British pride that we have very basic human rights.
"And we're part of a democracy and therefore have a voice in our society.
"Without the suffragettes, every single woman wouldn't be able to vote.
"We wouldn't have civil rights, we wouldn't have gay rights, there's all sorts of movements we now celebrate these really important breakthroughs.
“If this bill would have existed when they did what they did, they would have been considered a serious annoyance, an inconvenience, too noisy and would have been sentenced to up to 10 years in prison and fined up to £10,000.
“So, we’re here today to say we all have a right to have a say in this democracy.
“This is not Russia or North Korea. This is Britain.”
Former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn told a “Kill the Bill” protest on Parliament Square that the Government’s Police and Crime Bill “disempowers us all”.
He said: “If the right to protest is restricted, if you have to seek police permission to do anything, well, where does that lead to?
“It leads to every protest becoming a conflict about having the protest, rather than what the protest is about.
“This effectively disempowers us all, puts us all on the back foot and puts us all in a totally defensive mode…
“So, we ended up endlessly defending things instead of demanding things.”
He added: “This sense of disempowerment is designed to have a depressive effect, particularly on young people.”
