Priti Patel is likely to revive measures to tackle disruptive Insulate Britain-style protests despite peers throwing them out of her controversial new policing legislation.
The Home Secretary suffered a string of late-night defeats in the House of Lords on Monday, including on measures designed to combat tactics used by groups such as Insulate Britain, which disrupted traffic on the M25 last year, and Extinction Rebellion.
Ms Patel accused Labour of blocking measures to stop Insulate Britain and Extinction Rebellion “bringing our country to a standstill”, which the party strongly denied.
Lords sources claimed that the Tory whipping operation in the Upper House collapsed on Monday night, with fewer of the party’s peers turning out to support the Government as the night wore on.
Sources said they believed some Tories “basically gave up”, with some opposing measures in the Policing, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill and some also “unhappy with partygate”.
While the Government could simply reinsert moves to tackle “noisy” protests when the Bill goes back to the Commons, it cannot bring back more targeted measures that it only proposed for the first time in the Lords.
This includes creating offences of “locking on” to objects, “interference with key national infrastructure”, and “obstruction of major transport works”, as well as a move to allow stop and search without any grounds for suspicion at protests.
However, a Whitehall source suggested that Ms Patel was likely to bring back similar measures in new legislation, because they had “overwhelming public support”.
Asked whether fresh moves would be made against Insulate Britain-style protests, the source replied: “Certainly, because I don’t think the public are accepting that their way of life can be totally disrupted by a band of disruptive crusties.”
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Yvette Cooper, the Shadow Home Secretary, said the 14 total defeats in the Lords should force the Government to rethink the legislation.
“The Home Secretary should listen to the wide concern from all parties that the Government is getting this wrong,” Ms Cooper told i.
“We know this Government doesn’t like being challenged but instead of trying to silence peaceful protest, they should be focusing on public safety and security.
“If ministers try to bring the measures back through other legislation, then Labour will continue to argue for a common-sense alternative approach.”
