From Palestine Action to policing bill, the UK government is killing free speech

From Palestine Action to policing bill, the UK government is killing free speech Submitted by Lord Strasburger on Mon, 04/13/2026 - 16:07 Britain must now decide whether it will defend this core democratic freedom, or be remembered as the generation that let it slip away Police carry away a protester as people gather to call for the lifting of a ban on Palestine Action, in London’s Trafalgar Square on 11 April 2026 (Carlos Jasso/AFP) On Our right to peaceful protest is under relentless attack.   The freedom to come together and express our opinions has been gradually strangled by a succession of new laws and regulations introduced by this government and the last one. Police in Britain now have huge discretion to restrict demonstrations or even ban them altogether. As a Liberal Democrat, I believe that the right to protest is a fundamental cornerstone of any healthy democracy. It is a powerful tool for holding governments to account and challenging injustice and oppression both at home and abroad.   The Crime and Policing Bill, which has almost completed its passage through parliament, gives police even more sweeping powers to constrain and ban public demonstrations. It is the latest in a series of laws that expand the state’s authority over when, where and even whether citizens are allowed to protest.  And as if that was not bad enough, last year the Labour government misused the Terrorism Act to stop protests drawing attention to the plight of the people of Gaza.   The absurd decision in June 2025 to proscribe the direct-action group Palestine Action as a terrorist organisation meant that anybody displaying support for it was committing a terrorist offence, making them liable to immediate arrest and severe penalties. That did not deter thousands of overwhelmingly peaceful protesters who were outraged by this blatant politicisation of anti-terrorism legislation. The result was that 2,700 of them, with an average age of 57, were arrested.  Among them were priests, civil servants, retired army officers and pensioners, arrested for merely holding a placard or wearing clothing in support of Palestine Action. So far, about 700 have been charged. Dangerous threshold The order to proscribe Palestine Action was approved by parliament only after the government used procedural trickery to force it through. The proscription order was subsequently found to be unlawful by the High Court because it was disproportionate to the threat. As a result, the prosecution of the 700 protesters who were charged has been put on hold. The government is appealing, but even if successful, they must be regretting the pure folly of applying anti-terrorism law to thousands of respectable elderly citizens whose only crime was to show how upset they are by the carnage in Gaza.   From the outset, Liberal Democrats warned we did not believe the grounds for proscription had been met, given the low level of public threat and the availability of existing criminal legislation to deal with the offences in question.  Curtailing protest simply because it is persistent strikes at the heart of that tradition, and risks targeting the very causes that are most likely to be worthy of protest This is the first time an organisation has been proscribed as a “terrorist” group solely on the basis of property damage, rather than injury to people. It waters down the meaning of the word “terrorism” and risks establishing a dangerously low threshold under which any politically inconvenient protest could be treated as terrorism. Last August, the former home affairs spokesperson for the Liberal Democrats, Lisa Smart, wrote to the country’s terrorism tsar demanding an urgent review of the legislation that enabled the arrests.  As her letter made clear, the fact that peaceful protesters could be liable for up to 14 years in prison is dangerously disproportionate, and risks having a chilling effect on free speech and legitimate democratic dissent. Once that precedent is set, it is unlikely to be limited to one cause or movement. The proscription of Palestine Action is a further example of how, in its attempts to crack down on pro-Palestinian protest, the government is eroding our democratic freedoms more broadly.  But the trend to limit protests did not begin with the recent suppression of pro-Palestinian activism. Its roots can be traced back to authoritarian protest restrictions introduced by the former Conservative government.  The consequences extend far beyond any single movement, potentially affecting the ability of all citizens to exercise their fundamental protest rights.   Vague provisions As a Liberal Democrat peer in the House of Lords, I have been working with colleagues to challenge several of the most worrying provisions in the Crime and Policing Bill. These include restrictions on protests based on vague rules about their vicinity to religious buildings, and a ban on the use of facial coverings by protesters.  Most concerningly of all, the government tabled a “cumulative impact” clause allowing authorities to ban protests simply because they take place repeatedly in the same area.  From women’s suffrage to civil rights to anti-war movements, meaningful change has always depended on people returning, again and again, to make their voices heard. Curtailing protest simply because it is persistent strikes at the heart of that tradition, and risks targeting the very causes that are most likely to be worthy of protest.  UK mass crackdown on Palestine activism has brought chaos to the courts Read More » That is why I backed a Liberal Democrat amendment in the House of Lords to strike out the cumulative impact clause entirely. Unfortunately, that amendment was not put to a vote due to the Conservatives declining to support it, which meant it could not pass.  Jonathan Marks, the Liberal Democrat spokesperson on justice, also tabled a further amendment calling for a strong statement in domestic law on the right to protest. That amendment was voted down after Labour peers were put under a three-line whip to oppose it and the Conservatives failed to support it.  The authoritarian protest measures in the Crime and Policing Bill, and the misuse of terrorist proscription powers in the case of Palestine Action, are not isolated developments. They are part of a wider shift in how protest is being treated in Britain, from a protected democratic right to something increasingly conditional on the judgement of those in power at the time and local police.  The precedents being set now will shape the toolkit available to tomorrow’s governments. In today’s volatile political climate, we cannot assume those governments will always exercise such powers with restraint, or with regard for the liberal values we take for granted in Britain today.  The government’s intention to appeal the High Court’s judgement on the unlawfulness of the proscription of Palestine Action is a grave mistake. After thousands of disproportionate arrests and a clear legal ruling, continuing to pursue this case looks less like a defence of public safety and more like an attempt to save face.  And we must not forget that this is all at the expense of further degrading counter-terrorism powers, as noted by Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey in his response to the High Court ruling.  Parliament, and all of us, now face a simple choice: whether to defend the right to peaceful protest as a core democratic freedom, or be remembered as the generation that quietly let it slip away. The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Eye. Policing From Palestine Action to latest policing bill, the UK government is killing free speech Opinion Post Date Override 0 Update Date Mon, 05/04/2020 - 21:29 Update Date Override 0