Boris Johnson has been repeatedly rocked by Lords defeats to his “autocratic” crackdown on the right to protest. The Police Bill will make it illegal to inflict “serious annoyance” on a person without reasonable excuse. It creates new offences against obstructing the road or using a loudspeaker at the gates of Parliament. And ministers failed in a last-minute bid to add even more offences of locking oneself to a gate. Police were also given sweeping stop-and-search powers.
