MPS’ offices need protest exclusion zones like those at abortion clinics, ministers told

PROTEST exclusion zones should be introduced around MPS’ offices, the prime minister’s official adviser on political violence has recommended in the wake of fresh safety concerns.

Lord Walney will use a forthcoming report to urge Rishi Sunak to extend “buffer zone” powers, which currently cover schools and abortion clinics, to constituency surgeries, Parliament and council chambers.

He made the recommendation as figures from across the political spectrum have been targeted in their constituencies by pro-palestinian protesters since the Oct 7 Hamas attacks on Israel and the war in Gaza.

On Wednesday, Sir Lindsay Hoyle, the Commons Speaker, said he had chosen a Labour amendment to a motion on the conflict after being warned about threats to MPS if they were not allowed to back the proposal. Lord Walney’s review, which was to be submitted shortly after the Oct 7 attacks but has been updated, will call for the expansion of expedited public space protection orders.

The orders were backed by MPS in 2022 and approved by the Lords last year after anti-abortion rallies at clinics and demonstrations against Covid vaccines outside schools. The orders allow safe access zones, enabling police to ban anti-abortion protesters from certain activities within a radius of a clinic.

The law also empowers police to disperse intimidating protests which Lord Walney is understood to hope would protect parliamentarians from mobs.

♦ A former shadow minister has criticised The Guardian’s publication of a Just Stop Oil opinion piece “calling for Labour MPS to be targeted in their homes”. Stella Creasy said the piece, written by Sarah Lunnon, a co-founder of Just Stop Oil, was evidence of an “infection in our body politic”.