Anne McLaughlin accuses the government of moving the UK towards a ‘surveillance state’ 

During the debate on the public order bill, which was opened by home secretary Priti Patel, SNP’s Anne McLaughlin accused Patel and the government of trying to move the UK a “step closer to becoming a surveillance state”.

The bill would see police given greater powers to arrest protesters. However, McLaughlin argued that this move would be a “draconian anti-human rights policy”.

The SNP MP suggested that perhaps Patel was pushing for this policy “to distract from the failings of her department”.