The Labour Party has been urged to vote against a raft of amendments made to the controversial police, crime, sentencing and courts bill which were ploughed in at the last minute.
The Policing Bill will introduce aims to silence activists by creating 10-year sentences for protests that risk “annoyance”, “inconvenience” or “disease”. The 18 pages of amendments can be voted down by Peers after the House of Lords introduced them.
Mark Johnson, legal and policy officer at Big Brother Watch, said: “The government’s move to add Orwellian anti-protest amendments to the policing bill at this late stage is nothing short of a cynical attempt to bypass parliamentary scrutiny.
“Labour peers have an opportunity to stop these draconian proposals dead in their tracks. It is absolutely vital that all opposition parties vote against the government’s new amendments in order to protect our protest rights and those of future generations.”
The Guardian – Labour urged to vote down ‘draconian’ changes to crime bill