Police in the United Kingdom are set to receive sweeping new powers to restrict repeated protests, following a weekend marked by nearly 500 arrests at pro-Palestine demonstrations and heightened tensions after a deadly attack on a Manchester synagogue. The government’s move, announced on October 5, 2025, by Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood, comes amid mounting concerns over community safety, public order, and the balance between the right to protest and the rights of others to live without fear.
Mahmood, speaking on both BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg and Sky News’ Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips, emphasized that the forthcoming legislation is not a blanket ban on protests. Instead, it is designed to allow police to consider the "cumulative impact" of repeated demonstrations, especially in locations that have seen persistent gatherings. "The strengthening of the legislation that I'm going to bring about is based on the ability of the police to place conditions and restrictions on protests," Mahmood told Sky News, adding, "Cumulative disruption—that is to say, the frequency of particular protests in particular places—is, in and of itself, a reason for the police to be able to restrict and place conditions."
The urgency behind the new measures was underscored by the events of the previous week. On October 2, 2025, Jihad Al-Shamie, a 35-year-old British citizen of Syrian descent, killed two men and injured three others outside the Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation synagogue in Manchester during Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar. Al-Shamie was shot dead by armed police after driving a car at members of the public and attempting to force his way into the synagogue. In a tragic twist, Greater Manchester Police Chief Constable Sir Stephen Watson confirmed that one of the deceased, Adrian Daulby, as well as one of the injured, suffered gunshot wounds from police as officers tried to thwart the attack. "It is currently believed that the suspect, Jihad Al-Shamie, was not in possession of a firearm and the only shots fired were from GMP's Authorised Firearms Officers as they worked to prevent the offender from entering the synagogue and causing further harm," Watson said.
In the wake of the attack, police resources were stretched thin, with officers deployed to support hundreds of synagogues and Jewish community sites nationwide. Despite appeals from authorities and Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer for protest organizers to postpone demonstrations out of respect for the grieving Jewish community, large-scale protests went ahead in London, Manchester, and other cities on October 4. The central London protest, organized by Defend Our Juries and opposing the proscription of the activist group Palestine Action, saw hundreds gather in Trafalgar Square and resulted in mass arrests—most for alleged support of the banned group.
Mahmood expressed her disappointment that demonstrators did not pause in the aftermath of the tragedy. "I don't think it's offensive to ask people to show a little humanity towards a community that has suffered such a terrible tragedy, that's the first loss of Jewish life simply for being Jewish on British soil in centuries," she told the BBC. "Those people could have just waited a day or two and given people the chance to grieve and process what has happened. I don't think there's anything offensive about that, I think that would have been a British response."
The Home Office said the new powers will be introduced as soon as possible. They will include amendments to Sections 12 and 14 of the Public Order Act 1986, allowing police to impose conditions such as relocating protests or limiting their duration if a site has faced repeated demonstrations. Currently, police can only ban a march outright if there is a risk of serious public disorder—a high bar that will be lowered under the new rules to address persistent disruptions.
Mahmood also announced a wider review of protest legislation to ensure that powers are sufficient and consistently applied across police forces, including the potential to ban protests outright. She plans to write to chief constables urging them to use all available powers to prevent and respond to public disorder, while also thanking them for their response to the Manchester attack. Police are working closely with the Community Security Trust, a charity focused on protecting Jewish communities from terror and antisemitism, to provide reassurance in the wake of recent events.
The government’s plans have drawn a spectrum of political reactions. Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch voiced support for the expanded police powers but questioned why it had taken so long for the government to act. She also pointed to Mahmood’s own history as a protester, asking, "Why should the public trust a Home Secretary who not that long ago was protesting herself, lay down, closed a Sainsbury's supermarket because it was stocking Israeli goods?" Badenoch added, "We believe in free speech, but that has to be within the bounds of the law. If people are using protest to intimidate, if they're using protest to incite violence, then no, it's not protest."
Opposition voices, such as Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesperson Max Wilkinson, criticized the move, warning it risks undermining the "fundamental right to peaceful protest" without effectively addressing antisemitic hate. Human rights group Amnesty International went further, calling the new powers a "reheat" of previous Conservative proposals that had been found unlawful by the courts. Tom Southerden, Amnesty’s UK law and human rights director, said the measures bore "no relation" to the specific circumstances of the latest protests, which had moved to new locations.
The protests themselves have become a flashpoint for broader debates about free speech, community safety, and the boundaries of lawful activism. Since Palestine Action was proscribed as a terror organization in July 2025, the Metropolitan Police alone have arrested nearly 2,000 people in London for allegedly supporting the group. Organizers and supporters argue their demonstrations are legitimate expressions of dissent, especially regarding the ongoing conflict in Gaza. The group Defend Our Juries accused the government of "silencing opposition" and engaging in "authoritarianism" following the Home Office’s announcement.
Meanwhile, Jewish community leaders and security advocates have welcomed the government’s tougher stance. Dave Rich, director of policy at the Community Security Trust, told BBC Radio 4, "I think it's phenomenally tone deaf, to say the least, for so many people who claim to care about human rights and care about freedoms, to be taking police resources away from protecting the rights and freedoms of Jewish people to live their lives and go to synagogue in safety, all to support a proscribed terrorist organisation, which is not the same thing as supporting the Palestinians." The Board of Deputies of British Jews described recent protests as "deeply irresponsible and offensive," and held a commemorative event on October 5 ahead of the second anniversary of the October 7, 2023, attacks on southern Israel.
As the Home Office moves quickly to enact these new measures, the UK finds itself at a crossroads: striving to uphold the cherished right to protest while ensuring that the freedoms and safety of all communities are protected. The debate over where to draw that line—between liberty and security, protest and provocation—shows no sign of abating.
