Let ministers ban protests, says Braverman
Former home secretary sets out four-point plan in The Telegraph to tackle ‘extremism’ on UK streets
A LAW should be introduced to enable the Government to ban protests, Suella Braverman has said as she criticised police for failing to take decisive action at “hateful” pro-palestinian marches.
In an article for The Telegraph, the former home secretary sets out her four-point plan to tackle “mass extremism” on UK streets as James Cleverly, her successor, prepares to announce restrictions on such protests tomorrow. She calls for home secretaries to be given the power to ban protests, outlaw expressions of support of terrorism, prosecute those guilty of anti-semitic chanting and proscribe groups of “extremist concern”.
Her proposals go further than the Government, which was expected to unveil plans to jail protesters who climb on war memorials, give police powers to ban masks and fireworks at demonstrations and reduce activists’ scope to say they were unaware of restrictions.
Mrs Braverman was sacked in November after defying No 10 by writing an article that accused the Metropolitan Police of bias when policing pro-palestinian protests.
“We need a law that enables the home secretary to prevent a protest from going ahead. Ministers, answerable to the public, are powerless, while the police are the ones who technically possess the legal power to initiate a ban of a march,” she says. “This doesn’t strike the right balance, and so a power should be taken, as in France, to enable ministers to make the decision.”
Mrs Braverman says new laws are needed to address “mass extremism on our streets” because legislation requiring “incitement” or “encouragement” of terrorism to be proved make it too difficult to take action against groups exploiting legal loopholes.
“Surely any expression of support of terrorism, whether it galvanises emulation or not, should have no place in our society,” she insists. The Government should also legislate to draw up an amendable list of conduct that could be prosecuted as “threatening, abusive or insulting”, she adds.
This would include chants such as “From the river, to the sea”, which the former home secretary has described as “a staple of anti-semitic discourse”.
Police refused to prosecute protesters for using such chants unless it could be shown that they were designed to incite violence or intimidate Jews.
The Government has proscribed Hizb ut-tahrir, an Islamist group, as a terrorist organisation after members described Hamas as “heroes” on its website and praised the attack on Israel.
Mrs Braverman welcomed the Government’s moves, but said it must “go further if we are serious”. This included a proposal for ministers to be given powers to proscribe groups “of extremist concern” that may not be involved in terrorism. “I will fiercely defend the right to peaceful protest in a democratic society. But these marches are not about peace. They are outpourings of vicious bigotry,” she insists.
A Home Office spokesman said: “Serious disruption and support for terrorism ... has no place on our streets. Since October last year, the police made more than 600 arrests for public order and hate crime offences at protests linked to the Israel-hamas conflict.
“Inviting support for any proscribed organisation such as Hizb ut-tahrir is illegal, and we continue to work closely with the police to ensure they have the powers they need.”