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Starmer’s latest ‘deeply regressive clampdown on protest’ delayed under pressure

Keir Starmer’s Labour government just tried to sneak through an amendment that would further clamp down on citizens’ right to protest. But thanks to public resistance, parliament has pushed the vote back until 14 January. And that gives us a bit more time to intensify efforts to stop Starmer’s latest shady move.

Resisting the Starmer – Tory attacks on democracy

On 8 January, Human Rights Watch insisted that:

UK authorities have severely restricted the right to protest, in contravention of their international human rights obligations, creating an environment in which peaceful dissent is increasingly treated as a criminal act

Part of this repressive crackdown in the UK comes from the Tories’ Public Order Act, which helped increase police powers against protesters. And Labour has only been seeking to expand it.

Just as the Human Rights Watch report came out, animal protection group Protect the Wild highlighted a brief delay to a new and highly controversial government proposal to the Public Order Act. The amendment would treat ‘life sciences infrastructure’, such as controversial animal testing facilities, as “key national infrastructure” — like motorways, airports, or energy networks.

Protect the Wild previously warned that Labour was trying to get away with rushing the amendment through “on the sly“. But along with other campaigners, the group managed to make enough noise in the run-up to its potential passing on 7 January that parliament pushed the vote back by a week.

As the group said in a press release after a day of action on 5 January:

Public opposition to the proposal has been swift and substantial, with 20,000 people contacting their MPs and over 7,000 emails sent to members of the House of Lords, objecting to the plan. More than 5,000 people have also emailed the Home Secretary through a petition created by Protect the Wild, and hundreds more have sent handwritten postcards to her office.

Campaigners rallied outside parliament and the Home Office. The latter refused to receive an open letter from experts and activists in person. But the significant pressure clearly had an impact.

We need ‘direct, visible, unavoidable pressure’ to stop this

Calling the delay to the vote a partial victory, Protect the Wild insisted that what people need to do to stop the government’s escalating repression in its tracks is:

Direct, visible, unavoidable pressure from constituents…

We need MPs to feel that this issue is real, that it is urgent

This doesn’t just mean phoning or email, which can help, but also going in person to MPs’ constituency offices or even to parliament. It shows your commitment and seriousness and makes a strong impression. And it makes MPs more likely to feel they might lose their job at the next election if they don’t take your views into account.

This issue is of great importance, and it should push everyone to take action. Because as the group stressed:

The wording is broad. The powers are sweeping. And the precedent is deeply worrying. This does not stop at one issue. It affects environmental protest, trade union activity, community action, and the fundamental right to peacefully dissent.

It added in a press release that the change would:

chill free expression, silence ethical opposition, and set a dangerous precedent for future protest movements.

Police powers would grow at any site “holding animal testing licences”, which:

could include university campuses, hospitals, and research sites.

As the group’s petition said, it would be “a serious and unnecessary escalation” to the already controversial Public Order Act which:

has already been widely criticised by civil liberties organisations, UN Special Rapporteurs, and parliamentarians from across the political spectrum for its disproportionate impact on the right to peaceful protest.

Green MP Adrian Ramsay agreed. Speaking to the Canary, he said the plans represent “unjustified overreach” that is “ludicrous and without merit”. And he said they would be:

a deeply regressive change to the law that limits the right to protest

Stop 2026 from being even worse than 2025!

At the 5 January day of action, Protect the Wild founder Rob Pownall said:

the year has hardly started, and the government is already doing all that they can to screw over protest rights even further, at a point where we’ve hardly got rights as it is.

Pownall is completely right. Starmer’s regime isn’t going to slow down its decimation of our rights just because a new year has started. But we must absolutely make it our new year’s resolution to do everything we can to stop 2026 being an even worse year than 2025. And mobilising to stop this latest amendment is a perfect way to start.

Featured image via the Canary

By Ed Sykes

This post was originally published on Canary.