Extremist political protesters, including anti-Israel demonstrators and environmental activists, are facing a crackdown in the U.K. in an attempt to “do more” to protect institutions, residents, and politicians from “intimidation” and “chaos.” 

The U.K. Government’s independent adviser on political violence and disruption, Lord Walney, laid out proposals to Parliament on Tuesday in a report on political extremism and its threats to long held democratic norms. Far-left protest movements including Just Stop Oil, Free Palestine, and Black Lives Matter were explicitly mentioned in the report as Lord Walney argues that many noble causes have been “hijacked by extremist groups.”

The report calls for “extensive” and improved police intelligence to  “better counter the influence and law breaking of extreme political protest movements” as well as giving police more room to prohibit marches.

“The Government must ensure that police consider the cumulative disruption and harm done to a particular group by a succession of extreme political protests, such as the explosion of antisemitic hate crime currently being experienced by many Jewish people coinciding with the Gaza protests,” it notes.

The proposals also include granting more legal recourse to residents and businesses that are affected by extremist movements. 

“The Government should take steps to help workers and the public defend themselves against extreme activists. Those who suffer loss because of serious disruption from extreme and unauthorized protest deserve a right to redress from the groups who organize the action,” the report states, including compensation for employees who lose earnings and allowing businesses to sue for damages if they suffer economic harm. 

The proposals also call for greater liability for protest leaders, as it recommends that the government considers requiring organizers to “contribute to policing costs when groups are holding a significant number of large demonstrations which cause serious disruption or significant levels of law-breaking.”

Also in the report is a call for sanctions against groups that engage in criminal offenses “for which the penalty includes imprisonment,” including restricting their ability to organize and fundraise. 

Calling out Just Stop Oil and environmental activists, Lord Walney cites concerns over road blocking for medical emergencies and an incident last year where a woman missed her mother’s funeral because of the activists.

“In my view, such disruption is unacceptable,” he writes. “However urgently people feel about climate change, indifference to the lives of others like this is selfish and likely also counterproductive.” 

Anti-Israel activism “stands out” as “being a focus of incitement and intimidation,” the report notes. There has been a “substantial level of criminality and disorder and antisemitic content” on display during the marches, Lord Walney said in an interview with Sky News ahead of the report’s release. 

“I’ve been concerned over many months now that the police do seem limited in what they’re able to do to be able to balance peoples right to protest with the cumulative impact of having marches through Central London on a weekly or very regular basis which is making substantial parts of the community — the majority or sizeable parts of our Jewish community in London — apprehensive at best about going into the center of the city,” he said.

In response to the report, activists are calling into question whether Lord Walney is independent and expressing fear about being “banned.” 

“The Government’s ‘independent adviser’ on domestic extremism, Lord Walney aka former Labour Politician John Woodcock, has issued a report calling for organizations like Palestine Action and Just Stop Oil to be banned,” a statement from Just Stop Oil reads. “Last week, it emerged that far from being ‘independent’, Mr Woodcock serves vested corporate interests in the arms and fossil fuel industries, whose profits are being threatened by the groups he’s proposing to ban.”