LABOUR peers in the House of Lords refused to back a motion to end the UK Government’s “draconian” anti-protest laws.
Baroness Jenny Jones's (of the Greens) fatal motion against the Public Order Bill was heard on Tuesday evening.
This is a rare parliamentary procedure which can effectively kill off the passage of the UK Government’s legislation and marks the strongest opposition which can be taken in the House of Lords.
In this instance, the motion was against the change which could give police “near total discretion” as to which protests are made subject to restrictions – with anything that causes more than minor inconvenience being deemed potentially illegal.
Jones’s motion was backed by the LibDems, but speaking in the Lords last night Labour peer Lord Vernon Coaker said his party would abstain.
He said: “We will abstain on the fatal motion. We will not block this legislation. So let me be clear to those who keep asking me whether the official Labour position, His Majesty’s opposition’s position, is to block the bill.
“We will not do that. I understand why some people wish that to be otherwise but as His Majesty’s opposition, we will respect convention.
Lord Coaker - "Labour will abstain on the fatal motion.... we will not block the bill... " pic.twitter.com/ZFtZPGDD4z
— Haggis_UK 🇬🇧 🇪🇺 (@Haggis_UK) June 13, 2023
“We will respect tradition. We will respect the right way of doing politics in our country and I don’t believe that it necessarily shows any respect for the way that democracy votes by voting down the opinion of the elected government of the day.
“The way to change that is in my view to, at the next election get rid of this government and put another government in its place.”
Lord David Pannick, a crossbencher in the House of Lords, said: “I express regret that the Labour frontbench is not prepared to see through the implications of their own view that this is a constitutional outrage.
“It is something that we should stand up against and we should vote against.”
The bill gives police in England sweeping powers to crack down on peaceful protest and has previously been described as "draconian" by the SNP.
A petition calling on Labour to back the motion in the Lords reached more than 62,000 signatures before they abstained.
Labour have previously faced criticism for their stance on the legislation, particularly after David Lammy said they would not repeal it should they win the next General Election.
The party’s decision was met with fierce criticism from Green MP Caroline Lucas who said it was a “shameful abdication of duty”.
Shameful abdication of duty by so-called official opposition. Coaker says “we won’t block this legislation. We will respect convention, we will respect tradition”. In other words, they’ll be complicit with Govt attacks on democracy. Thankfully Greens offering real opposition https://t.co/HTTeVc3ov8
— Caroline Lucas (@CarolineLucas) June 13, 2023
Writing on Twitter, she said: “Coaker says ‘we won’t block this legislation. We will respect convention; we will respect tradition’.
“In other words, they’ll be complicit with Govt attacks on democracy. Thankfully Greens offering real opposition.”
When asked about the changes to the bill by the Byline Times, the Prime Minister’s spokesman said: “We wouldn’t characterise it as that. It’s not appropriate that people are prevented from going about their everyday lives by these sorts of actions.
“Obviously the right to protest is fundamental and protected, but when it crosses into stopping people going about their lives, businesses trading or indeed emergency services going about their work, it’s clearly not appropriate.”
I’M SO VERY SORRY EVERYONE. WE CAME TOGETHER in our tens of thousands to try & stop the Government using an unprecedented abuse of power to restrict the publics right to protest. Over 55,000 of you supported us. Tonight #labour @LabourLordsUK shamelessly ignored the publics… pic.twitter.com/FwsucDrR1V
— Peter Stefanovic (@PeterStefanovi2) June 13, 2023
Lawyer Peter Stefanovic also hit out at Labour for their actions, writing on Twitter that they had “shamelessly ignored the public outcry and backed the Government”.
“I have always supported @UKLabour but its refusal to join @LibDemLords & a small band of brave others across the House in backing tonight’s fatal motion was a disgrace.”
He added that Labour had supported “restricting the right to protest”.
