An amendment in the Government’s Crime and Policing Bill covers synagogues, mosques, churches and other religious sites from intimidating levels of disruption caused by protest activity, the Home Office reports.
As the Home Office acknowledges, the Public Order Act already covers intimidation and protest. What’s new would be a threshold for officers to be able to impose conditions – such as on the route and timing of a march – where the effect of the protest is to intimidate those attending a place of worship. The Home Office points to synagogues having cancelled events on the Sabbath and congregants staying at home due to fears about travelling to their places of worship during large-scale demonstrations, especially in central London, against the war between Hamas and Israel in Gaza. Similarly, during the midsummer 2024 violence after the Southport murders, mosques in Southport, Hull, Sunderland and numerous other places got attacked by right wing extremists.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper (pictured, courtesy of the Home Office) said: “The right to protest is a cornerstone of our democracy which must always be protected, but that does not include the right to intimidate or infringe on the fundamental freedoms of others. That’s why we are giving the police stronger powers to prevent intimidating protests outside places of worship to ensure that people can pray in peace.”
The Home Secretary announced that a new offence for climbing on a war memorial – already announced when the Crime and Policing Bill was introduced – will be extended to cover the new National Holocaust Memorial scheduled to be built next to Parliament in Victoria Tower Gardens. The grants by central government as provided under previous, Conservative governments are continuing – £18m through the Jewish Community Protective Security Grant, £29.4m through the Protective Security for Mosques scheme and for security at Muslim faith schools, and £3.5m for places of worship and associated community centres of other faiths.
Mark Gardner, Chief Executive of the Community Security Trust (CST), a charity for protection of Jewish sites such as schools and synagogues, said: “The cumulative impact on central London synagogues of repeated large, noisy protests, often featuring antisemitism and support for terrorism and extremism, has been intolerable. We welcome these new measures to protect the rights of the Jewish community to pray in peace and we thank the Home Secretary for her ongoing support. Everyone has the right to protest, but there must be a balance so that all communities can attend their places of worship free from hate and without fear of being intimidated.”
CST dinner
Meanwhile Met Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley and Yvette Cooper were among VIPs at the CST annual dinner, its main fund-raising event of the year. Yvette Cooper and Mark Gardner were among the speakers. For Yvette Cooper’s speech in full, visit the Home Office website. She told the event that she had agreed with the Permanent Secretary at the Home Office, ‘that we will roll out antisemitism awareness training across the Home Office, and when Home Office staff seek to visit Auschwitz or other concentration camps with the Holocaust Educational Trust, March of the Living, and other organisations, that will not count towards their annual leave, because we will treat that experience as a crucial part and asset for their employment’.
JSO stop
The climate change protest group Just Stop Oil has announced a final ‘action’ in Parliament Square on April 26, while stating ‘this is not the end of civil resistance’.
