POLICE will be given sweeping new powers to remove climate change demonstrators who disrupt businesses or transport links.
Ministers plan to outlaw “guerrilla tactics” used by Extinction Rebellion protesters to create chaos.
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They will re-draw public order rules to make it harder for groups to blockade key sites such as power stations, railway stations, military bases or private companies.
Home Secretary Priti Patel is acting after XR’s printing press blockade which left some newsagents’ shelves empty last weekend.
Under one plan, it will become an offence for protesters to superglue or chain themselves to vehicles, trains or railings to disrupt lawful activity.
Last year XR activists disrupted rush-hour services by gluing themselves to a train at a London station.
Ministers are also expected to make public nuisance a statutory criminal offence, carrying tougher sentences.
And the police would get new powers, with heftier fines and more conditions of protest activity.
Ms Patel has met Solicitor General Michael Ellis to thrash out the crackdown.
She said last week’s demo was “a shameful attack on our way of life, our economy and the livelihoods of the hard-working majority”.
And she added: “They are damaging the prospects of newsagents, shopkeepers and print workers. I refuse to allow that kind of anarchy.”
A senior government source said: “There’s nothing wrong with people marching. But we can’t have them stopping the law-abiding majority going about their business.”
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