Protesters who wear masks could face arrest, up to a month in jail and a £1,000 fine under proposed measures that human rights campaigners claim are pandering to “culture war nonsense”.
Police in England and Wales will be given the power to arrest people if they are wearing face coverings at specific demonstrations, the Home Office has said.
Demonstrators will no longer be able to use the right to protest as a reasonable excuse if they commit public order offences such as serious disruption.
The move is in direct response to the four protesters being cleared of criminal damage after toppling a statute of slave trader Edward Colston in Bristol in 2022 . They successfully argued that they were exercising their rights to freedom of expression, thought and conscience.
Another new offence will make the possession of flares, fireworks and any other pyrotechnics at public processions and assemblies for protest illegal. Perpetrators may be forced to pay a £1,000 fine. It follows the use of flares and fireworks at protests against the Israel-Gaza war.
The changes will be added as amendments to the criminal justice bill. The bill is going through parliament and expected to become law by Easter.
Ministers will also make climbing on war memorials a specific public order offence, carrying a three-month sentence and a £1,000 fine. There have been recent incidents during which individuals have broken away from large protests and scaled national monuments.
Shami Chakrabarti, the human rights lawyer and peer, said: “Should rape victims or refugees peacefully protesting really be punished for covering their faces to protect their identities? This is more culture war nonsense from the government while children go hungry and the planet burns.”
Akiko Hart, director of the rights advocacy group Liberty, said: “Bringing in these powers put people at greater risk of being criminalised for exercising their right to protest – including disabled people who in some situations have only felt comfortable protesting in public when wearing face coverings.
“It is extremely concerning that the government is trying to impose even more conditions on not only when people can protest, but how they protest too.”
At present, if a section 60AA order of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 is in effect in a specific area, a police officer can demand that any item a person is wearing to conceal their identity is removed. Failure to comply can result in an arrest.
This had led to protesters removing their masks temporarily, disappearing into the crowd, and putting them on again, government sources said.
Under the proposals, police will be given the power to arrest people for wearing a face mask once a 60AA authorisation has been granted, sources said.
This could lead to police making a ban on masks an explicit condition before a march can go ahead, critics have said.
Protesters against regimes such as China and Iran have pointed out that the measure could prevent UK-based dissidents from organising demonstrations outside embassies. They claim their faces could be recorded and their relatives punished or disappeared in their home countries.
The home secretary, James Cleverly, said that recent protests had seen “a small minority dedicated to causing damage and intimidating the law-abiding majority”.
“The right to protest is paramount in our county, but taking flares to marches to cause damage and disruption is not protest, it is dangerous,” he said. “That is why we are giving police the powers to prevent any of this criminality on our streets.”
Labour welcomed the clampdown on fireworks and flares but remained cautious about the measures due to be introduced.
A spokesperson for the party said: “We welcome a ban on flares and fireworks, which have been used to create disorder and intimidate police officers in recent months. We will scrutinise the details of these proposals to ensure that new measures are applied appropriately and proportionately.”
The Home Office said that since 7 October there had been more than 1,000 protests and vigils, with more than 26,000 police officer shifts assigned them between that date and 17 December alone, and 600 arrests.