UK to introduce limits on 'repeated' protests after synagogue attack
Amid ongoing protests and a recent terrorist attack, UK Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood is set to introduce new police powers, sparking concerns.
UK Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood will give police new powers to place limits on repeated protests and is considering legislation to ban them outright, after weeks of demonstrations led to mass arrests and strained resources.
The move comes a day after police arrested nearly 500 people in the latest protest in Trafalgar Square in support of the proscribed group, Palestine Action. Prime Minister Keir Starmer had earlier called on organizers to cancel Saturday’s event in the wake of last week’s attack on a Manchester synagogue, which took place on Yom Kippur — the holiest day in the Jewish calendar.
“The right to protest is a fundamental freedom in our country,” Mahmood said in a statement Sunday. “However, this freedom must be balanced with the freedom of their neighbors to live their lives without fear.”
In the wake of the terrorist attack in Manchester, the Labour government is facing questions about whether it’s done enough to protect the Jewish community in the UK. Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy was heckled at a vigil held in Manchester after the synagogue attack.
“I fully accept that people are grieving, they are upset and they want more from their government. They are justified in asking for more,” Mahmood said in an interview with the BBC on Sunday.
The UK government, which last month formally recognized Palestine as a state, is trying to get to grips with several large protest movements that have gathered steam across the country, including demonstrations against the unfolding situation in Gaza as well as protests against immigration policies. Although the marches have been mostly peaceful, opponents have complained about intimidation of passers-by and antisemitic banners and slogans.
In a separate interview with Sky News, Mahmood said that everyone should acknowledge the complexity of the situation the police are dealing with.
“We’ve had a number of near-misses around migrant hotels, a mosque was set on fire last night, we’ve had an anti-Semitic terrorist attack on UK soil as well,” she said.
Police will be given new powers to tell organizers of demonstrations that have taken place at the same site “for weeks on end, and caused repeated disorder” to move their events somewhere else, according to the statement, with offenders facing arrest and prosecution. The new powers will be brought forward as soon as possible, the government said.
Mahmood is also reviewing existing legislation to ensure that “powers are sufficient and being consistently applied,” including the ability to bar protests from taking place altogether.
Civil liberties groups and other non-profit organizations including Greenpeace UK have already begun pushing back against the proposed measures.
“The Home Secretary must immediately withdraw this dangerous step towards authoritarianism,” Will McCallum, Greenpeace UK’s co-executive director, said in a statement. “We are repeatedly told that the right to protest is ‘a cornerstone of our democracy’ and yet in the last few years it has been corroded to the point of collapse.”
