UK Home Secretary Seeks to Extend Police Powers

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - UK Home Secretary Suella Braverman is determined to extend the powers of the police when it comes to dealing with "disruptive" climate change protesters, Sky News reported on Sunday.

Braverman intends to submit a Public Order bill, which provides for the expansion of police powers and more serious penalties for protesters if the protests threaten or cause "serious disruption or a serious adverse impact on public safety."

"The police need strengthened and tougher powers to match the rise in self-defeating protest tactics, and that's what the Public Order Bill will do," Braverman was quoted as saying.

The UK Home Secretary believes that protesters should not hold the public "to ransom."

"Preventing our emergency services from reaching those who desperately need them is indefensible, hideously selfish and in no way in the public interest... This serious and dangerous disruption, let alone the vandalism, is not a freedom of expression, nor a human right. It must stop," Braverman said.

According to the Home Office, the proposed legislation, to be submitted to parliament next week, will protect the access to essential goods and services as well as to key infrastructure. In addition, this bill provides for an introduction of criminal liability for interference in the operation of facilities such as oil refineries, airports, railways and printing presses.

Such an offense will entail a penalty of up to 12 months in prison, an unlimited fine, or both. The bill also includes the introduction of criminal liability for other offenses common among eco-activists' manner of protesting.

In recent months, activists of the Just Stop Oil and Extinction Rebellion movements that advocate for the cessation of oil and gas production organized various protests that led to traffic disruptions in central London.

On Thursday, Just Stop Oil campaigners blocked a busy roundabout in the Central London district of Southwark and reportedly prevented an ambulance from passing. On Friday, activists of the same group splashed tomato soup over Vincent Van Gogh's Sunflowers painting at the National Gallery in London to demand that the government halt new projects on oil and gas extraction.

Since October 1, the police have arrested more than 350 activists.