A senior Tory has attacked his party’s own anti-protest bill as “too crude” and “poorly defined” after police faced backlash over its use to arrest coronation protesters.
Former minister David Davis said the arrest of six demonstrators, including Graham Smith, chief executive of the anti-monarchy group Republic, was an example of flaws in the bill.
Mr Davis was the only Conservative MP to oppose the government’s Public Order Act, which hands police new powers to shut down protests before they occur by lowering the bar for “serious disruption”.
The bill, which was implemented just days before the coronation, also bans slow marching and can result in a six-month prison sentence for campaigners who use tactics to “lock on” to buildings.
Mr Davis told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that police have a “very difficult job” with major events such as the coronation cautioned: “They have to police it with a view to democratic rights as well as to making sure that days are not ruined.
“The police and the Home Office have to get straight exactly how they protect our democratic rights at the same time as protecting the day for thousands of people.”
Mr Davis called for Parliament’s home affairs select committee to bring in police chiefs to collect evidence on how to apply the Public Order Act. He said the bill is “defined very broadly” and called for a centralised set of guidelines on how it should be applied. “If we are going to do it, we should do it properly, do it centrally and get the same level of democracy around the whole country,” Mr Davis said.
Mr Davis called on the home affairs select committee to collect evidence on how to apply the Public Order Act from police chiefs
Sir Peter Fahy, former head of Greater Manchester Police, agreed with Mr Davis, telling the programme the Public Order Act was “poorly defined and far too broad”.
“We see the consequences of that, particularly for the police officers, who have got to try to make sense of legislation that was only passed a few days ago,” he said.
And Sir Peter suggested political pressure, including from Tory party deputy chairman Lee Anderson, was partially to blame. He highlighted calls from Mr Anderson in April for the Sir Mark to take tougher action against Just Stop Oil protestors.
The criticism comes after Scotland Yard expressed regret that the six people arrested ahead of the King’s coronation were unable to join fellow anti-monarchy protests after they were detained for up to 16 hours. The Metropolitan Police was threatened with legal action after no charges were brought against those who were held.
The Metropolitan Police said it had arrested the group using new powers under the much-criticised Public Order Act as officers believed items found alongside a large number of placards could be used as “lock-on devices” to cause disruption.
“Those arrested stated the items would be used to secure their placards, and the investigation has been unable to prove intent to use them to lock on and disrupt the event,” the statement said.
Republic chief executive Graham Smith said a chief inspector and two other Metropolitan Police officers personally apologised to him over what he called a “disgraceful episode” after they visited him on Monday evening.
The force later confirmed Mr Smith and five others were told they would face no further action.
But Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley defended the policing of the coronation. Sir Mark described the arrest of six anti-monarchy campaigners as “unfortunate” but stressed that he supported the arresting officers’ actions. And Britain’s most senior police officer claimed “celebrating crowds applauded and cheered” while his officers arrested people close to the processional route.
And Prime minister Rishi Sunak defended the new powers used to arrest protesters. His official spokesman would not comment on “specific decisions” around the arrests, but said the government “stands by these powers”.
No10 said the powers are “appropriate” and “in line with what the public want”.
Mr Sunak’s spokesman said: “I think the public has been alarmed by the chaos caused by highly disruptive protesters over the last few years and the legislation was brought in to balance the fundamental rights of protesters with the rights of others to go about their business without fear of serious disruption to their daily lives.
“It wouldn’t be right to judge a whole piece of legislation based on one example.”
And health minister Neil O’Brien said he thought the force did an “excellent job” policing the coronation.
Labour has come under pressure from other opposition parties to say whether it would scrap the Tories’ law if they were elected to power.
The SNP’s Chris Stephens said Labour were “spineless”, while the Liberal Democrats’ Alistair Carmichael said any party “happy to support” the new powers “is no supporter of civil liberties and should think again”.
Labour’s Lisa Nandy on Tuesday said while “something had gone wrong” for the protestors arrested at the coronation, the party would not engage in the “wholesale repeal of legislation”.
“If there is a problem with the legislation, of course we will rectify that in government,” she told BBC Breakfast.
