The government’s attempt to change the law on protest by secondary legislation will now be debated for 90 minutes in the Commons on Monday BEFORE facing the Fatal Motion, put by Jenny, in the Lords on Tuesday.
Our worry is that Labour will inevitably lose any vote in the Commons, where the government has an 80 seat majority, and then give up the fight in the Lords.
We need to convince Labour that such a constitutional change, about whether a Minister has the authority to overturn a parliamentary vote by using regulations, requires the assent of both houses and also, to accept that the Lords are not bound to back down as the government has no electoral mandate (i.e. manifesto pledge) to do this.
Jenny says: “As a fundamental constitutional question, the Lords can legitimately stop the government from overstepping their powers and eroding the supremacy of Acts of Parliament. Making new laws by Ministerial decree is a big constitutional change and the Lords is the most appropriate house to vote on my Fatal Motion as it was the Lords who previously voted to reject this draconian law.
I hope that Labour understand that this Fatal Motion is a defence of the long established status quo, that parliamentary votes should not be overturned a few months later, by Ministerial decisions. It is the government who are trying to do something which has never been done. It would mean that any Minister could change any law, at any time, on their own initiative, without proper scrutiny.
If we allow the government to get away with this repressive change to the laws of protest, which parliament has already rejected, then other Ministerial decrees will follow that see major changes to environmental and workplace protections. In the last 4 years we have passed a huge number of skeleton bills that give Ministers the power to make or change laws. This is a shifting of power from parliament to Whitehall. My Fatal Motion tries to stop Ministers taking this power grab onto a new level of government by diktat.
Giving the police discretion to ban a protest that causes anything “more than minor” disruption is an assault on democracy and freedom of speech. The million strong march against the Iraq war caused masses of disruption, but under this law it would certainly make the threshold for a ban. Do we really want to give the Home Office and police the powers that we’d expect to see used in Russia?”
Jenny’s petition asking Labour to support the Fatal Motion in the Lords has reached 27,000 signatures, please help us reach 50,000.
Baroness Jones of Moulsecoomb 