Police to get powers to ban slow walking in traffic amid Just Stop Oil protests

Suella Braverman is to give police the power to ban slow walking in traffic by protesters, as Just Stop Oil enters the fifth consecutive day of using the tactic in the latest phase of its climate protest campaign.

The home secretary said a statutory instrument to the public order bill, which passed its final stages in parliament on Wednesday, would stop what she described as the “selfish disruptive protesters [who] are wreaking havoc in people’s everyday lives across the country”.

Just Stop Oil’s supporters have carried out slow marches on busy roads in the capital every day this week, as it renews its campaign after climate rallies in Westminster by Extinction Rebellion last weekend.

The group, which calls on the government to stop licensing new oil and gas projects, adopted the tactic at the end of last year, after supporters racked up long lists of arrests and charges for a series of dramatic and disruptive protests. Police were forced to weigh the disruption of the marches against the protesters’ rights to political speech.

A change to the definition of “serious…