Climate activists fight protest ban
EXTINCTION Rebellion (XR) activists are launching legal action against the police over a London-wide ban on their protests.
The move comes amid growing criticism of the ban, made under public order legislation already used to restrict the action to Trafalgar Square.
Activists continued protests in the capital in defiance of the police order, targeting the Department for Transport and locking themselves to a caravan on Millbank.
Human rights lawyer Tobias Garnett, working for Extinction Rebellion, said the group would be filing a High Court claim challenging the ban on the grounds it is “disproportionate and unlawful”.
He said the police order limiting protests “risks criminalising anyone who wants to protest in any way about the climate and ecological emergency that we face”.
Under the current order, any assembly – classed as a gathering of two or more people – linked to XR in London is unlawful.
Lawyers have questioned the legality of ban, aimed at halting further protests after more than a week of disruption, while a number of politicians expressed outrage. Shadow home secretary Diane Abbott said: “This ban is completely contrary to Britain’s long-held traditions of policing by consent, freedom of speech, and the right to protest.”
Green Party MEP Ellie Chowns, who was arrested in Trafalgar Square, Green MP Caroline Lucas and shadow policing and crime minister Louise Haigh also spoke out against the move.
London Mayor Sadiq Khan said he would ask for more information over why the ban had been put in place.
But Home Secretary Priti Patel backed the police, tweeting: “Officers from around the country have done a fantastic job policing XR protests. Supporting our Police is vital.”
Police moved in to clear Trafalgar Square on Monday evening, telling protesters to leave the site by 9pm or risk arrest.
Metropolitan Police Deputy Assistant Commissioner Laurence Taylor said the protest ban was brought in after “continued breaches” of the condition limiting the demonstration to Trafalgar Square.
He said: “This was an operational policing decision to help us get London moving again. After nine days of disruption we felt it is entirely proportionate and reasonable to impose this condition because of the cumulative impact of these protests.”
He said that using Section 14 to limit the location and duration of protest action was “not unusual”, and that the measures had been applied during demonstrations over the jailing of Tommy Robinson in August.
Extinction Rebellion activists defied the order and the group’s co-founder, Gail Bradbrook, was arrested after action to target the Department for Transport in Westminster over HS2 and airport expansion.
Protesters locked themselves to a caravan parked by Millbank tower in central London, with police spending more than two hours trying to free them using electric saws.