Credit;PA
The government suffered a series of defeats in the House of Lords last night over its plans to clamp down on disruptive and noisy protesters.
Opposition peers voted against a range of measures in the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill, with Labour calling some of the plans “outrageous”.
Peers also voted to make misogyny a hate crime in England and Wales in another government defeat.
The bill will now go back to the Commons for MPs to have their say.
Ministers were defeated, by 261 votes to 166, over plans to give the police new powers to stop protests in England and Wales if they are deemed to be too noisy and disruptive.
And peers also turned down other measures which would make it illegal for protesters to lock themselves to things and to give police officers powers to stop and search people in an attempt to prevent them taking part in illegal protests.
Green peer Baroness Jones described the government’s plans as “oppressive” and “plain nasty”.
“How do you seriously think a protest is going to happen without noise?” she asked.
Labour’s Lord Hain called the move “the biggest threat to the right to dissent and the right to protest in my lifetime” adding that it would have “throttled” protests by the suffragettes.
Throughout the debate, drum noises from a demonstration against the bill could be heard in the Lords’ chamber.
It comes after hundreds of activists took to the streets in London to protest against the Government plans this weekend.
The so-called “Kill the Bill” protesters called on the House of Lords to reject the Policing Bill amid concerns it “threatens the right to peaceful protest”.
Demonstrations took place across the UK in cities including London, Bristol, Coventry, Newcastle, Liverpool, Manchester Sheffield, Plymouth.
Reacting to the Lords defeats last night, Zarah Sultana said it “wouldn’t have happened if people hadn’t taken to the streets and raised the alarm at the Tories’ growing authoritatianism’.
Reaction elsewhere was similarly jubilous.
Here’s what people had to say:
