Hemsworth MP Jon Trickett says government’s Public Order Bill is an attack on freedom and right to protest

Hemsworth MP Jon Trickett has condemned the Government’s Public Order Bill as handing over “unprecedented, draconian powers to the repressive arms of the British State” and for being “an assault on British liberty”.

Speaking during the House of Commons’ consideration of House of Lords amendments to the bill, Mr Trickett warned that, if they become law, the measures will “grant the police the power to intercept people who are not even suspected of committing a crime”.

The bill sought to give police sweeping powers to stop protest tactics such as blocking roads and slow marching before disruption takes place.

He said: “That is an extraordinary power to give after over 1,000 years of the struggle of the British people to have a state that protects our liberty.

"The only thing that is comparable are the laws that were passed against terrorism. Protesting against injustice is not terrorism.

“The police themselves have said they don’t want these powers.

"It will lead to a further breakdown in confidence between the police and other parts of the state on the one hand and with communities on the other.

“It is extraordinary to see a clause in a bill in this British House of Commons that proposes people can be intercepted by the police with no suspicion [of criminality] whatsoever.

“The British state claimed historically to be the bastion of our liberty but this bill will become an engine of our suppression. An authoritarian state is being created here.”

He said that by allowing just three hours for debate on the bill’s measures, including giving powers to the police to Stop and Search Without Suspicion and impose Serious Disruption Prevention Orders (effectively protest banning orders) on people who have not been convicted of a crime was “outrageous”.

“Why has the government given so little time to discuss these matters, some of which go back 1,000 years in English history?

“We have a failing economic and political system in our country. Consent has broken down across wide parts.

"There are two ways of moving forward: we either try to produce a just and more equal society, or we move from consent to repression – and that is where this government is taking us.”