Met backs report calling for new anti-protest laws

  • Post last modified:September 9, 2024
  • Reading time:9 mins read


A Met Police commissioner has been talking to notorious shadowy dark money think tank Policy Exchange. It was over the force’s policing of pro-Palestine protests. Crucially, his comments come as part of the think tank’s new report pushing the Labour Party government to expand the police and court’s anti-protest powers.

Of course, it’s shocking enough that a senior Met police official has loaned the opaquely-funded organisation his voice. What’s worse is that it’s the very think tank at the centre of the authoritarian anti-protest laws the Tories have already put in place and cops have used to repress peaceful protesters.

Policy Exchange: new report calls for more repressive police powers

On Monday 9 September, shady right-wing think tank Policy Exchange published a new alarming report titled:

‘Might is Right?’ The ‘Right to Protest’ in a new era of disruption and confrontation

Naturally, the report ramps up its calls for a further crackdown on peoples’ right to peaceful protest.

In particular, it seeks to influence the new Labour government to adopt more draconian legislation. This includes recommendations to:

  • More powers under the Public Order Act 2023 to prohibit protest marches.
  • Replicate the Irish Republic Offences Against the State Act 1939.  This would give the police sweeping new powers to forbid “prevention by obstruction or intimidation of any branch of the government of the State from carrying out their functions, duties or powers”.
  • Mandating police chiefs to implement section 7 of the Public Order Act. As the Canary has previously highlighted, the Met first used this new power to arrest Just Stop Oil protesters marching for less than twenty minutes down Cromwell Road in London.

However, this is a non-exhaustive list of the think tank’s demands.

What’s more, Policy Exchange highlighted Labour’s recent decision to pursue the previous Tory government’s appeal over its unlawful anti-protest laws.

Policy Exchange and the Tory’s anti-protest laws

Of course, we’ve been here before. In 2019, Policy Exchange published a similar report titled “Extremism Rebellion”. Notably, as the name suggests, it did this in response to the 2018 launch of Extinction Rebellion.

In June 2023, then prime minister Rishi Sunak boasted that the think tank had helped draft its anti-protest legislation.

In fact, an openDemocracy investigation had suggested that whole sections of the Police, Crime, Sentencing, and Courts Act had been:

directly inspired by the Policy Exchange report.

Specifically, it had called for the government to “urgently” reform protest laws:

in order to strengthen the ability of police to place restrictions on planned protest and deal more effectively with mass law-breaking tactics.

Of course, then home secretary Priti Patel wasn’t shy about the fact it had designed the new police powers to directly tackle climate protesters.

And it was little wonder Policy Exchange had a hand in this.

This is because the think tank has a sprawling network of ties with the fossil fuel industry. Not least among these is the fact that big oil has funded it. While the think tank is tight-lipped about the sources of its funding, previous investigations have revealed US fossil fuel major ExxonMobil has bankrolled Policy Exchange to the tune of $3.5m. However, this is likely just the tip of the rapidly melting iceberg.

Since the government passed the draconian police powers in law, cops and the courts have enacted heavy, repressive arrests and sentences on thousands of peaceful protesters.

The Canary has reported on many Extinction Rebellion and Just Stop Oil protesters the state has targeted under these laws. We also reported on Extinction Rebellion pushing back against Policy Exchange – protesting directly outside its office.

Met Police in bed with Policy Exchange

We can’t possibly think why Policy Exchange is now turning its attention to Palestine protesters:

Naturally, the corporate media has also lapped up the new report. Right-wing rags like the Daily Mail and the Telegraph have uncritically platformed the think tank’s report. Most significantly, they have honed in on Met assistant commissioner Matt Twist’s input to this.

The Telegraph led with the headline:

Met Police admits making mistakes policing pro-Palestine protests

Meanwhile, the Daily Mail published under a similar line:

Met Police admits ‘errors were made’ in ­tackling anti-Israel demonstrators – amid calls for protest laws to be ‘rebalanced’ in favour of the public

Specifically, these detailed assistant Met commissioner Matt Twist’s interview with the right-wing think tank. Notably, the two outlets focused on Twist’s suggestion that the police did not “move quickly to make arrests” at Palestine marches.

The Network for Police Monitoring (Netpol) noted that it’s perfectly on brand for Twist:

In February for instance, the assistant commissioner had branded calls to free Palestine as antisemitic:

As one poster on X highlighted, Policy Exchange is trying to drive a wedge between the general public and protesters. Crucially, the user underscored that protesters ARE members of the public, whose rights the police is meant to protect:

Of course, this hasn’t stopped the Met and other police forces tyrannically curtailing these rights. The forces attempts to impose major restrictions on the Palestine Solidarity Campaign march in London on Saturday 7 September is a glaring example of this.

Now, Policy Exchange, with the backing of a senior Met commissioner and other former Met officials, want to expand the force’s ability to do this even further.

Distinctly anti-democratic at best

At the end of the day, Met officials that claim to serve the public should be going nowhere near the vested, clandestine interests of a right-wing think tank. However, it also comes as little surprise.

Crucially, this is because we should be under no illusion that the police actually exist to serve the public. The Met – and the police in general – have always been a tool of the racist, capitalist state.

Despite that, this incident of Met collaboration with a dark money think tank shows this doesn’t solely involve shielding the rich and powerful from public dissent. It also means actively advancing their corporate capitalist interests – and using their public position to do it.

Needless to say, if Policy Exchange has its way, the Met will step up its authoritarian clamp down on peoples’ right to protest even more. Already, it’s clear climate activists and Palestine protesters will be first in the firing line.

Feature image via Youtube – PolicyExchangeUK/ BBC London





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