Labour is trampling over the rights of us all with its move to ban repeat protests, argues columnist Calum Steele

Few things show just how much the Government is struggling like the 8am Home Office press release last Sunday. The timing was clearly designed to dominate the morning politics programmes and debates, suggesting Labour thought it was on to a winner. I can imagine the backslapping among spads and spinners, having convinced Shabana Mahmood that sticking it to the dreadful lefties was a sure-fire vote-winner, making an announcement that surely had no downsides.

In many ways, this was a typical Labour justice move – one driven by the sense that they needed to react to the immediacy of criticism, rather than taking time for sober reflection and to consider whether the heat and noise in the aftermath of the utterly horrific Yom Kippur synagogue attack in Manchester were ever going to deliver the necessary foundations for sound policy-making.

But no – the button was pressed. Having already taken the frankly ludicrous decision to proscribe the group Palestine Action, a government pained by the visible impact of its decision – endless images of little old ladies, people with white canes, crutches, wheelchairs, as well as ministers of religion being arrested each week for – wait for it – holding a cardboard sign (the sheer audacity) is to now seek to ban them from protesting altogether.

Predictably, this "courageous" announcement was backed up with claims of a gap in the law and suggestions police chiefs had........

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