Commenting on Liberty’s successful High Court challenge against Sunak’s anti-protest law, coming on the same day as John Woodcock’s review on political extremism, Greenpeace UK’s co-executive director Areeba Hamid said:

“This High Court defeat should be a clear warning to Rishi Sunak’s government that its criminalisation of peaceful protest has already gone too far. The very last thing we need now is new ideas from Lord Walney on a further crackdown, whether it’s creating protest-free zones or black-listing campaigning groups. There’s nothing ‘extreme’ about stopping fossil fuel companies from causing climate mayhem or blocking arms exports that could be used to commit war crimes. If ministers need a reminder of what political extremism looks like, they can take a peek at those Conservative-run anti-ULEZ Facebook groups that have become a cesspit of racism, Islamophobia and violent threats. Leading human rights groups, the UN and now even the High Court have objected to the government’s crackdown on peaceful protest. It’s crystal clear what the next government should do: scrap these anti-democratic laws for good.”