Keir Starmer is in the pocket of the eco mob, Suella Braverman claims as she blasts Labour’s plans to thwart law to stop road-blocking fanatics
- Suella Braverman blasted Sir Keir Starmer as being in the pocket of the eco mob
- Home Secretary wants to give police more powers to block disruptive protests
- It comes in the wake of Just Stop Oil’s current campaign of 124 slow walks
Suella Braverman blasted Sir Keir Starmer as being in the pocket of the eco mob as his party tries to block a crackdown on disruptive protests.
The Home Secretary wants to give police greater powers to tackle ‘selfish’ road-blocking stunts that bring cities to a standstill and lead to clashes with fed-up motorists.
Writing in the Mail, Mrs Braverman revealed that Just Stop Oil’s current campaign of 124 slow walks has taken up 12,500 police officer shifts, preventing them from catching serious criminals, while the mob’s antics cost police more than £14 million last year.
But her planned legal change – introducing a new definition of ‘serious disruption’ to cover the impact on anyone caught up in traffic jams caused by the environmental activists – will be opposed by Labour leader Sir Keir, and his MPs are expected to vote against it in the Commons.
It could even be killed off in the Lords tomorrow by peers, who are angry that the Government is bringing back legislation that the Upper House rejected a few months ago, while the equality watchdog last night warned it risked undermining the democratic right to peaceful protest.
The Home Secretary wants to give police greater powers to tackle ‘selfish’ road-blocking stunts that bring cities to a standstill and lead to clashes with fed-up motorists
Mrs Braverman blasted Sir Keir Starmer as being in the pocket of the eco mob as his party tries to block a crackdown on disruptive protests
READ MORE: SUELLA BRAVERMAN: These protesters are selfish and the public are sick of them… Whether it’s stupid stunts at the snooker, rugby and Grand National, blocking roads or slow-walking, the rest of us have had enough
Mrs Braverman revealed that Just Stop Oil’s current campaign of 124 slow walks has taken up 12,500 police officer shifts, preventing them from catching serious criminals, while the mob’s antics cost police more than £14 million last year.
But Mrs Braverman accused the Opposition of going easy on the activists after taking £1.5 million in donations from green tycoon Dale Vince, who bankrolls Just Stop Oil, Extinction Rebellion and Animal Rising.
She said: ‘A selfish minority is finding new ways to cause havoc and misery. That is deeply unfair on the law-abiding majority, who must be able to go about their lives freely and should not have to clear disruptive protesters out of the way themselves.
‘Not that this is a concern for Sir Keir Starmer and the Labour Party. They have taken £1.5 million in donations from a “green businessman” who bankrolls these selfish protesters. It’s the same old Labour Party, soft on crime and soft on criminals – they’re in the pocket of Just Stop Oil.’ Last week Prime Minister Rishi Sunak claimed the ‘eco-zealots’ were writing Sir Keir’s energy policy of banning new licences for North Sea oil and gas production.
The move by the Home Secretary to crack down on the green mob comes after a top-level meeting with police chiefs on how best to ‘improve the response to highly disruptive protests’, a Home Office memo states. The document explains that last year, when Insulate Britain and Just Stop Oil ‘caused widespread disruption across the nation through traffic obstruction and slow marches on roads’, police chiefs said ‘their powers to impose conditions on such protests were limited’.
The wording of existing legislation meant they could not stop protests going ahead and could impose conditions only once they were under way and causing ‘serious disruption to the life of the community’.
Proposed amendments will make it clear that serious disruption can include the ‘cumulative impact’ of repeated processions in the same area, and can cover ‘hindrance that is more than minor to the carrying out of day-to-day activities (including in particular the making of a journey)’.
An economic impact assessment predicts the change will improve public safety as well as save police officers’ time.
However, there is anger that the Government is seeking to introduce the changes through a piece of secondary legislation that cannot be amended, known as a Statutory Instrument, because the same proposals were made in a late amendment to the Public Order Bill earlier this year and voted down by the Lords.
The document explains that last year, when Insulate Britain and Just Stop Oil ‘caused widespread disruption across the nation through traffic obstruction and slow marches on roads’, police chiefs said ‘their powers to impose conditions on such protests were limited’
The Equality and Human Rights Commission warned last night that the redefinition of ‘serious disruption’ could undermine the right to peaceful protest, which is guaranteed under the Human Rights Act.
A Labour Party spokesman said: ‘Labour is clear that dangerous disruption from Just Stop Oil is totally unacceptable and breaks the law.
‘The police already have the powers they need to take action against serious disruption, as they have themselves said.
‘The Labour Party has never taken any money from Just Stop Oil. Policy is never decided on the basis of donations received.’
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