Labour’s stance on the Public Order Act risks alienating voters – and its own MPs

Good morning. Labour has doubled down on comments made by David Lammy over the long weekend, in which the frontbencher suggested that the party may not repeal the controversial Public Order Act if it comes into government. The Act – which was rushed through its final parliamentary stages ahead of the King’s coronation – hands new powers to the police to respond to protest. The legislation was condemned as “deeply draconian” by Amnesty UK during its passage through parliament, while Liberty accused the government of being “determined to silence people and hide from accountability”. The Metropolitan Police has faced strong criticism over its handling of protests during the coronation and has since expressed “regret” over the arrests of six anti-monarchy protesters, who the Met confirmed had been detained under the new law.

Asked on his LBC radio phone-in show whether Labour would repeal the bill, Lammy said: “We can’t come into office, picking through all the Conservative legislation and repealing it… It would take up so much parliamentary time. We need a positive agenda.” Lisa Nandy echoed the Shadow Foreign Secretary’s comments on the broadcast round this morning, telling Sky News that Labour is “not in the business of just repealing all legislation”, though the Shadow Levelling Up Secretary added: “We will certainly amend legislation when we’re in government in order to strike the right balance between the democratic right to protest and the right of people in Britain to go about their everyday lives without serious disruption.”

Nandy’s comments on Sky News illustrate the difficult line Starmer’s Labour is trying to walk on crime, looking to seize the agenda on the issue and avoid being painted as weak by the Tories but risking alienating more liberal voters in the process, as well as some of its own MPs. Nandy told viewers this morning that the coronation was a “very complex policing operation” and that it was a “tribute” to the individual officers that took part in the event that peaceful protests were “largely” able to take place. The Labour frontbencher acknowledged that there had been a “problem” in the case of the six arrests and agreed with London mayor Sadiq Khan on the need for answers about exactly what had happened.

Asked specifically what Labour in power would do about the Public Order Act, however, Nandy said: “We want to know what the problem actually was with this series of arrests first. It’s not clear whether the problem was with the legislation.” The party’s decision not to take a firmer stance on repealing the Act will reignite accusations of fence-sitting and surely also risks undermining Labour’s commitment to restore confidence in every police force “to its highest ever level”, in light of the criticism the police have received from across the political spectrum following the coronation.