UK Governments Policing Bill Faces Considerable Opposition

UK Governments' Policing Bill Faces Considerable Opposition

CREDIT: Twitter

UK Governments Policing Bill Faces Considerable Opposition.

UK Labour and the SNP will be voting against the proposed Tory Policing Bill should Prime Minister Boris Johnston push for it to be passed through parliament.

Representatives from UK Labour said that though it was a vigil, not a protest, the scenes from Sarah Everard vigil in Clapham should be a red warning light that the UK Government should not be rushing through divisive laws to crack down on the right to protest.

“The tragic events of this week, and the powerful calls for change across the country to address the violence against women and girls, must be a powerful call to unite for change,” said Nick Thomas-Symonds, the Shadow Home Secretary and Welsh Labour MP for Torfaen.

“We are calling on the Government to drop its poorly thought-out proposals and instead work with UK Labour to legislate to address violence against women and girls and other issues such as tougher sentences for attacks on frontline workers,” he concluded.

Ian Blackford, the Scottish Nation Party’s Westminster group leader followed the same stance, stating: “The SNP will vote against the Tory Police Bill, which imposes disproportionate restrictions on our freedom of expression and right to protest. It is a rushed and poorly considered bill, which would damage the rights of people across the UK. It should be withdrawn immediately.

“I urge Boris Johnson to listen and scrap the bill as it stands. Instead of restricting people’s rights, the UK government must deliver meaningful action to tackle violence against women.

“The death of Sarah Everard is devastating. My thoughts are with her friends and family at this awful time. This must be a moment for real and meaningful change. We all have a responsibility to tackle the abuse, harassment, and violence that women face from abusive men every day,” he concluded.

According to the UK Government, the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill will:

  • protect the police and other emergency workers and enhance the wellbeing of police officers and staff
  • protect the public by giving the police the tools needed to tackle crime and disorder, and by addressing the root causes of serious violent crime using multi-agency approaches to prevention
  • uphold the right to peaceful protest while providing the police with the necessary powers to stop disruptive protests from disproportionately infringing on the rights and freedoms of others
  • strengthen police powers to tackle unauthorised encampments
  • ensure serious criminals spend longer in custody, including: ending the automatic halfway release point from prison for an additional cohort of serious sexual and violent offenders and making a Whole Life Order the starting point for the premeditated murder of a child
  • make community sentences more effective so that they offer an appropriate level of punishment and address the underlying drivers of offending, including: piloting a problem-solving court approach for certain community and suspended sentence orders and extending the use of Electronic Monitoring
  • strengthen alternatives to custody for children who have offended which promote rehabilitation, and raise the threshold for custodial remand, while at the same time ensuring that children who commit serious offences and pose a risk to the public receive sentences that reflect the seriousness of their offending
  • empower future providers of Secure Schools, which represent our vision for the future of youth custody – schools with security, rather than prisons with education: with education, healthcare and purposeful activity at their heart
  • modernise our courts and tribunals by updating existing court processes to provide better services for all court users and underpin open justice

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Written by

Matthew Roscoe

Originally from the UK, Matthew is based on the Costa Blanca and is a web reporter for The Euro Weekly News covering international and Spanish national news. Got a news story you want to share? Then get in touch at editorial@euroweeklynews.com.

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