A crackdown on protests branded “terrifying” and “highly draconian” by activists is set to pass its final Commons stages today.
An MP warned “our democracy is at stake” from the Public Order Bill - which makes it a crime with unlimited fines to carry glue or a lock with the intention of sticking oneself to a road or gate.
Protesters who do "lock on" face six months’ jail.
The Bill hugely expands stop-and-search powers to cover protesters, and let police search them in some areas even if they suspect no wrongdoing.
It will also launch new orders that ban serial protesters from events and force them to wear electronic tags, with six months’ jail if they refuse.
Liberty warned it was a “gross expansion” of stop and search, while Serious Disruption Prevention Orders were “unprecedented and highly draconian”.
After disruptive protests from groups like Just Stop Oil and Extinction Rebellion, Home Secretary Suella Braverman vowed: “I will not bend to protestors attempting to hold the British public to ransom."
But writing for Mirror Online, Green Party MP Caroline Lucas said the Bill “is a truly staggering attack on our right to protest” and attacked the “terrifying expansion of the stop and search powers”.
She said: “This Bill represents a blatant attack on political community – on the vital networks of people involved in keeping protest movements alive.
“These are desperate measures from a Government determined to avoid accountability at any cost – and the cost to the rest of us is huge.
“Let’s be clear: our democracy is at stake.”
After today the Bill will go the Lords where Liz Truss could face a ferocious, cross-party battle lasting months while she fights for political survival.
Many of the measures in the Bill were originally introduced in the House of Lords under a previous protest crackdown, but peers defeated them.
Just Stop Oil and Extinction Rebellion activists have staged various protests in recent months, causing disruption to commuters and traffic.
Yesterday Just Stop Oil protesters climbed to the top of the major road bridge linking Essex and Kent, forcing police to close it to traffic.
Essex Police were called shortly before 3.50am to a report that two people had climbed on to the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge at the Dartford Crossing.
Just Stop Oil said two supporters had scaled the bridge "to demand that the Government halts all new oil and gas licences and consents".
Separately Just Stop Oil protesters also threw soup over the Business Department headquarters in Westminster, and some glued themselves to the road.
Promoting the Bill over the weekend, Home Secretary Suella Braverman said she will give the police new powers to take a more "proactive" approach.
Ministers will be able to apply for injunctions in the "public interest" where protests are causing or threatening "serious disruption or a serious adverse impact on public safety".
According to the Home Office, this will include protecting access to "essential" goods, services and "key" infrastructure.
Ms Braverman said over the weekend: “Preventing our emergency services from reaching those who desperately need them is indefensible, hideously selfish and in no way in the public interest.
"This serious and dangerous disruption, let alone the vandalism, is not a freedom of expression, nor a human right. It must stop."
More than 350 Just Stop Oil protesters have been arrested in London since the start of October, according to Home Office figures.
