Yvette Cooper to defend tough anti-protest laws introduced by Tories in High Court battle

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Andrew Feinberg

White House Correspondent

The home secretary Yvette Cooper will defend “undemocratic” anti-protest laws brought in by Suella Braverman in a legal battle in the High Court.

Civil rights group Liberty took the Conservative government to court over the protest laws and won its legal challenge in May.

Tory ministers had decided to appeal the decision, but the case was put on hold following the election of a Labour government. Ms Cooper has now decided to continue to appeal, a move that Liberty said showed a “disregard for the rule of law”.

The protest laws were passed last year, under then-home secretary Ms Braverman. They gave the police sweeping powers to tackle disruptive protests, such as those organised by Just Stop Oil or Extinction Rebellion activists.

But human rights groups argued that the laws effectively gave the police unlimited powers to crack down on anything they deemed as causing “more than a minor” disturbance, saying it would have a chilling effect on the right to protest.

The measures, which two judges found to be unlawful, lowered the threshold for what is considered “serious disruption” from “significant” and “prolonged” to “more than minor”.

In their judgment in May, Lord Justice Green and Mr Justice Kerr ruled that the Home Office acted unlawfully by introducing the regulations, concluding that “‘serious’ does not include ‘more than minor”’ and that the department failed to carry out a fair consultation process.

Akiko Hart, the director of Liberty, said: “We are very disappointed that, despite a positive discussion about the impact of the unlawful regulation, the home secretary has taken the decision to continue this case. This legislation is undemocratic, unconstitutional and unacceptable.

“The Home Office’s decision to continue the case shows disregard for the rule of law and completely goes against previous statements from the government just last month that they would not abuse the use of secondary legislation and that they would promote high standards of governance.

“With hundreds of people wrongfully arrested and convicted due to this unlawful legislation already, it is not right to continue to carry on with this law that should never have been made in the first place. The only right thing to do would be to quash this legislation once and for all.”

Liberty says that the appeal is now scheduled to be held later this year, with a date to be confirmed.

A Home Office spokesperson said: “The right to protest is fundamental to our democracy, and all public order legislation must balance this right.

“However, we disagree with the court’s ruling in this case and have appealed their decision.”