Despite a firm rebuke in the House of Lords, Justice Secretary Dominic Raab says measures against ‘noisy protests’ would be reintroduced in the Commons.
The controversial Crime Bill was aimed squarely at protesters and tactics that have become prevalent since the rise of the Extinction Rebellion climate protests. The House of Lords have proved unlikely allies of the anti-establishment gutting Government proposals to allow police officers to stop and search protesters without suspicion, preventing protesters from “locking on” tactics which make them difficult to remove and creating offences to prevent the disruption of transport.
The Peers even introduced measures to protect the right to protest, protecting Parliament Square as a place to protest, scrapping the Vagrancy Act of 1842 which makes begging and sleeping rough crimes and introducing a new requirement for police officers to tell the truth in public inquiries.
After these defeats the Bill will have to return to the Commons for further amendment before again being sent to the Lords.
I agree we need to work with the Government to clamp down on the aggressive actions of groups like Extinction Rebellion. But, the measures in this Bill were so potentially draconian.
These were marks of an authoritarian dictatorship, not a democracy…These measures allow Ministers sweeping powers and this Bill needs to be completely rewritten.
Baroness Ros Altmann, Conservative Peer and Former Minister of State for Pensions who tabled an amendment told Times Radio
Misogyny
The Government was also defeated when Conservative peer Baroness Newlove introduced an amendment which would make misogyny a hate crime. This would allow for better data to be collected on crimes against women and allow judges to levy harsher sentences if they
