UK Government: Protest is not a crime

The Labour government is doubling down on the unprecedented attack on our democracy that the Tories started.

New clauses in the Crime and Policing Bill place yet more severe restrictions on our right to protest including banning face coverings and giving police the power to force protestors who are on limited visas to leave the country if they get a caution.

This is the fourth anti-protest bill in just four years. The Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 has proven every bit as draconian as feared. In 2024 five climate activists were sentenced to a terrifying combined 21 years behind bars - for planning a peaceful protest on a zoom call.

History proves that our right to peaceful protest is one of the best tools we have to change society for the better. Protest has won women the right to vote, weekends, the end of child labour and much more. Everyone has benefitted from the right to protest in the past and we all need the right to make our voices heard about issues that matter to us now, it should never be a crime.

Our democratic freedoms have been hard won, but right now are being easily lost. Please act now to defend our right to protest by signing the petition calling on this government to revoke the protest-related clauses in all of this repressive legislation, and associated secondary legislation.

SIGN THE PETITION

Prime Minister Keir Starmer

“Stop the crackdown on protest and protect the right to freedom of expression.”

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