Suella braverman calls for ministers to be given powers to ban protests

Suella Braverman has called for a new law to give ministers the power to ban protests. The former home secretary hit out at "hateful" pro-Palestine demonstrations which have taken

place in London and across the UK in recent months demanding a ceasefire in Gaza. Writing in the Daily Telegraph, Mrs Braverman said: "We need a law that enables the home secretary to

prevent a protest from going ahead. "Ministers, answerable to the public, are powerless while the police are the ones who technically possess the legal power to initiate a ban of a

march. "This doesn’t strike the right balance and so a power should be taken, as in France, to enable ministers to make the decision when it is believed violence may occur or a protest

is causing ongoing distress to a community." Mrs Braverman said she backs "the right to peaceful protest in a democratic society". She added: "But these marches are not

about peace. Rather they are outpourings of vicious bigotry. This cannot become our new norm. "We need leadership to unequivocally condemn Islamism and anti-Semitism on our streets. To

reassert what Britain means to the world: civility, tolerance, and order. "Above all, we need to find our backbone. Hatred must fail. We need to stand up and take on the mob. We need to

win this fight and reclaim our streets. If we don’t, we could find ourselves living in a very different country." Mrs Braverman also called for powers to make it easier to prosecute

"expression of support of terrorism" and antisemitic chants, and to proscribe groups of “extremist concern”. Her intervention comes as Home Secretary James Cleverly is expected to

announce shortly new powers to curb certain types of protest activity. Mrs Braverman was sacked by Rishi Sunak after branding pro-Palestinian protesters "hate marchers" and

accusing the Metropolitan Police of bias for letting a rally go ahead on Armistice Day.