Tory anger over police powers

PLANS to give police the most “draconian detention powers in modern British legal history” for another six months have been condemned by Tory MPs.

Boris Johnson is expected on Thursday to push through a six-month extension of lockdown legislations that give police the power to close ports, ban protests and detain citizens despite insisting that coronavirus restrictions would be lifted on June 21. Dozens of his own MPs are set to rebel.

Cabinet ministers, concerned that needlessly extending powers would inflame tensions among backbenchers, were thought to be divided over which lockdown measures needed extending.

The votes will come 24 hours after Mr Johnson is questioned by MPs on the Liaison Committee and after an “end of term” meeting with his backbenchers on Tuesday organised by the 1922 Committee.

MPs will vote three times – to extend the Coronavirus Act to Sept 25; on various lockdown regulations from late June and into July; and to end proxy

voting in the Commons on June 21. Ministers hoped that putting the measures together would limit any rebellion as MPs would want to be seen to be voting to end sick pay support and furlough.

But with infections at the same level as autumn, dozens of Tory MPs were expected to rebel. One Cabinet minister said: “There is a lot of cynicism and a lack of trust.” Matt Hancock, the Health Secretary, said the powers would remain only for as long as required when he persuaded MPs to back support the Coronavirus Bill a year ago.

Writing in today’s Sunday Telegraph, Mark Harper, who chairs the Covid Recovery Group, says the Coronavirus Act contains “some of the most draconian detention powers in modern British legal history, giving the police and other officials the power to detain us, potentially indefinitely”. He adds that retaining the provisions of the Act will “raise concerns that restrictions will be reintroduced in the autumn”.