Police given tougher powers to crackdown on eco-mob

Police given tougher powers to crackdown on eco-mob disruption: New measures allowing officers to move on static protests and ‘tunnelling’ becoming a criminal offence comes into force from today

• Police will be given new powers to ‘clamp down’ on disruptive protestors
• The new laws will make it illegal for protestors to build tunnels underground 

Police from today will have tough new powers to ‘clamp down’ on ‘disruptive’ protestors – including the environmental campaigners who build tunnels underground.

The new laws make ‘tunnelling’ illegal, meaning protestors who build tunnels at HS2 construction sites including the one outside Euston Station could now be jailed for up to three years. 

Powers to move on static protests have now also been extended to the British Transport Police and the Ministry of Defence Police, meaning they will no longer be forced to rely on local forces.

The Home Office said the powers will free up capacity in police forces across the country, as it claimed protests are swallowing 150 Metropolitan Police officers each day who will now be able to patrol London’s streets. 

Home Secretary Suella Braverman said the powers will let police ‘act fast and clamp down’ on protestors as she hit out at those causing ‘mayhem’ on Britain’s streets.

Police will have new powers to tackle protestors who use ‘disruptive’ tactics, including those who build tunnels underground

Ministers have repeatedly sought to use enhanced public order powers to target the tactics used by environmental groups such as Extinction Rebellion and Just Stop Oil.  

The new powers follow the introduction of the Public Order Act in May which expanded police abilities to tackle ‘guerilla’ protest tactics, by making it illegal to ‘lock-on’ to buildings or disrupt ‘key national infrastructure’. 

Under the powers that came into force today, protestors found guilty of tunnelling or ‘being present in a tunnel to cause serious disruption’ could be jailed for up to three years.

Those found guilty of taking equipment to tunnel will also face a maximum penalty of six months in prison, while anyone guilty of obstructing a major transport works could face the same punishment.

The British Transport Police and Ministry of Defence police will now have powers to move on static protests 

The Home Office has said that tunnelling at locations such as HS2 construction sites was costing the taxpayer money and said that from Sunday obstructing the building or maintenance of future transport networks was now illegal.

Critics have argued that the toughening up of laws are a threat to the right to protest.

‘Hard-working people want to be able to go about their daily lives without disruption from a selfish minority,’ Ms Braverman said.

‘The Public Order Act is delivering on our commitment to allow people to get on with their daily business. We will keep our roads and those hard-working people moving.

‘The public have had enough of their lives being disrupted by selfish protesters. The mayhem we’ve seen on our streets has been a scandal.

Home secretary Suella Braverman hit out at the protestors causing ‘mayhem’ on Britain’s streets

‘That is why I’ve given our police officers the powers they need to act fast and clamp down on these protesters determined to disrupt people’s lives.’

She said that the changes that come into force on Sunday would also ensure ‘the protection of journalists reporting on protests so they can carry out their important role without fear of arrest’.

However, former Scotland Yard detective Peter Bleksley claimed the Home Secretary had been ‘forced’ to introduce the new laws in order to ‘make the police do their job’.

‘If the police were more robust and they used the existing laws then the home secretary would not be forced into a corner and would not have to bring about these new laws,’ Mr Bleksley said on GB News. 

‘These laws sadly are a reflection on the liberal, fluffy and woke police leadership, which has quite frankly not used existing powers and allowed protest groups to cause so much disruption,’ the ex-detective said.  

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