The Conservatives have been accused by human rights experts of hypocrisy after cracking down on climate and Gaza protests while celebrating and endorsing farmers’ protests in Wales.
Rishi Sunak joined a protest of farmers in Wales last Friday, after they had obstructed a road while campaigning against the Labour government’s new farming subsidies scheme. But this week he vowed to crack down on protests, referring to them as “mob rule”. On Wednesday, the Welsh Conservative leader, Andrew Davies, along with many of his colleagues greeted and posed for photographs with farmers who formed a large group outside the Senedd and blocked a main road with tractors.
Meanwhile, climate protesters were arrested while marching through the City of London to demand insurance companies stop insuring fossil fuel projects. At a climate protest outside the London headquarters of the Axa insurance group on Thursday, police told protesters who stood in the road they would be liable for arrest for interfering with vital national infrastructure, a new offence under the Public Order Act 2023 that allows them to criminalise anyone blocking a road.
In recent years, the government has tightened legislation specifically to stop climate protesters from blocking roads, and dozens have been imprisoned as a result. This week, Sunak announced a range of measures to stop protesters from obstructing the homes or workplaces of politicians – including their parliaments. However, on Wednesday in parliament he offered support to the Welsh farmers who had gathered in their thousands outside the Welsh parliament.
Yasmine Ahmed, UK director of Human Rights Watch, said: “The idea that politicians are celebrating one set of protesters while cracking down on others is chilling. A country that only allows you to demonstrate on issues it agrees with is the very definition of authoritarian. For a government that prides itself as a defender of free speech, it seems this defence is conditional on you agreeing with the government.
“Your right to protest is a fundamental democratic right and a cornerstone of a functioning democracy. If the prime minister is as staunch a defender of democracy as he professes to be, he should be protecting these rights for everybody, rather than looking to introduce more swingeing restrictions on our liberties.”
The broadcaster and wildlife campaigner Chris Packham tweeted a picture of the tractor-blocked road, commenting: “Wake up Daily Mail and Telegraph, protesters are blocking roads, people are missing hospital appointments, funerals, emergency services can’t get through! Here’s some epithets for you ‘Farmo-mob’, ‘Farmo-loons’, ‘Farmo-zealots’. C’mon call for them all to be locked up forever! You wouldn’t want to be accused of hypocrisy!”
Wake up @MailOnline @Telegraph protestors are blocking roads , people are missing hospital appointments , funerals , emergency services can’t get through ! Here’s some epithets for you ‘Farmo-mob’ , ‘Farmo-loons’ , ‘Farmo-zealots’ . C’mon call for them all to be locked up forever… pic.twitter.com/GtaBz26ya5
— Chris Packham (@ChrisGPackham) February 29, 2024
James Cleverly, the home secretary, has told those attending pro-Palestinian protests that they have “made their point” and urged them to stop. There have been marches all over the country, but the largest and most prominent ones are in central London every weekend.
Ruth Ehrlich, head of policy and campaigns at Liberty, said: “The messages coming out of the government this week on protest have been riddled with hypocrisy and inconsistencies.
“It is ironic the prime minister accuses protesters of shutting down free debate, when the government’s continued assault on protest rights has threatened people’s ability and confidence to stand up for what they believe in.
“Almost all the rights we cherish today – whether it’s the right to vote or the right to decent working conditions – exist in part because people took to the streets to demand change.
“In times where tensions are high and communities must be brought together, the prime minister’s dangerously inflammatory rhetoric is having the opposite effect.”
A Extinction Rebellion spokesperson said: “The government are indulging in playground politics to support road-blocking farmers while arresting and jailing road-blocking climate activists as the planet burns. It’s predictable and pathetic that they are using their ‘good’ protesters v ‘bad’ protesters divide-and-rule tactics in a desperate attempt to stop the massive electoral meltdown that they know is coming for them very soon.
The proposal for new legislation preventing protesters from demonstrating outside the homes of politicians comes after it was widely reported that Just Stop Oil planned to go to the homes of MPs to urge them to adopt climate policies. Some MPs expressed anxiety and frustration about this, arguing that in the context of an environment where they face rising verbal and physical threats in recent years, and where two MPs have been killed in the last decade, targeting their homes takes protest too far.
The Home Office has been contacted for comment.
