Chris Packham has insisted ‘Just Stop Oil’ has the right to protest outside the homes of MPs after PM Rishi Sunak's warning
Labour MP Steve McCabe has said the broadcaster Chris Packham is wrong to suggest that protests outside MPs’ homes are legitimate.
He told GB News: “I think that is probably not the case. I think that is a massive intrusion.
“What a person does in their public life should be open to criticism and interrogation. People are entitled to and particularly their families, are entitled to a degree of privacy. So, I don't know that I would find that acceptable myself.”
On the Government considering broadening the definition of extremism, he said: “I think we've certainly seen a number of things that most people would regard as unacceptable and beyond the bounds of legitimate protests.
“I suppose it depends exactly how the Government defines this. It's easy to talk about it, sometimes a bit harder to define legislation.
“Where actions are designed to deliberately intimidate or threaten specific individuals, or where they go beyond the bounds of what might be classed as legitimate protests, targeting people's own homes, their families, things like that, I don't think that is acceptable, and I don't think it should be allowed.”
In a discussion with Tom Hardwood and Emily Carver, he said: “We saw the Palestinian protesters projecting that stuff on to the House of Commons, we've seen environmental protesters at the Prime Minister’s house, at Keir Starmer’s house. As I say, I don't think that is acceptable.
“That is beyond the bounds of legitimate protest and I don't think it should be allowed.”
Asked about policing of protests, he said: “They’ve been asked to do a very difficult job, but we've all seen examples where things have been allowed to go in that we might have expected to see earlier intervention.”
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