Rishi Sunak’s government intends to “crack down” on the “guerrilla” tactics of environmental defense groups such as Extinction Rebellion and Just Stop Oil.
With our correspondent in London, Emeline Wine
Rishi Sunak wants to allow the police to disperse a demonstration before it has even caused disruption. Concretely, if the police suspect a group of wanting to block a road, for example, they can interrupt their gathering.
Another measure, if a militant group organizes a series of actions, all the demonstrations will be considered as the same occurrence. It would therefore become much simpler to prohibit successive actions, for example the October daily blockades organized by Just Stop Oil.
With this amendment, the government intends to “crack down” on the “guerrilla” tactics of environmental groups. But the Labor opposition rejects this expansion of police powers, deemed unnecessary, too vague and described as ” blank check for repression by Labour.
The amendment has yet to be voted on – it is part of a general law on public order, which already plans to expand the definition of “serious disturbance” and put in place “protest bans” for certain protesters. The vote in the House of Lords is not yet certain.