UK government suffers defeats in Lords over controversial protest laws

An alliance of Labour, Liberal Democrat and independent peers voted to remove provisions of the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill which would have allowed police to impose conditions on noisy assemblies and processions.

Baroness Williams of Trafford, a Conservative peer and the minister of state for home affairs, told the Lords: “It is completely right that the police should have the powers to intervene in exceptional cases where the noise generated by a protest is such that it is injurious to others.

“As with all conditions, police will only impose conditions on noise where necessary and proportionate and where they have carefully considered protesters’ freedoms of expression and assembly. Of course, they can rightly be challenged in court if they do not.”

However, Lord Coaker, a Labour peer and shadow spokesperson for home affairs and defence, said previous governments had not sought to restrict noisy protests despite the noise being “massive during the poll tax and the miners’ strike protests”.

“The disruption outside Parliament was absolutely enormous: rattling the gates, banging the drums, stopping this and that,” he said. “What did Margaret Thatcher do? She did not introduce a noise amendment to the right to protest. I completely and utterly reject the premiership of Margaret Thatcher, but she did not do this, and neither did John Major.

“What has happened that has caused the government now to introduce these changes to the right to protest with respect to noise, which previous prime ministers did not do in the face of some of the most difficult demonstrations, whatever the rights and wrongs of them? It beggars belief.”

Peers voted by 261-166 to remove the restrictions on noisy processions and 238-171 to remove the restrictions on noisy assemblies.

Other provisions of the bill, including additional powers to stop and search people suspected of heading to an illegal protest, were also removed.