Cracking down on dangerous tunnels

Those who disagree with a government project or a local development have every right to peaceful protest.

However, peaceful protest does not include preventing people from going about their lawful business and it certainly does not include putting people's lives at risk - either by blocking roads or digging dangerous tunnels.

So, this week the government announced plans to bring forward legislation to ban dangerous tunnelling protests, cracking down on this guerilla protest tactic as we continue to make our streets safer.  

  • The digging of make-shift tunnels is one of the most dangerous and costly tactics deployed by groups such as Just Stop Oil and protesters against levelling up projects such as HS2.
  • That is why dangerous tunnelling by protesters will be banned under a new law in our Public Order Bill, with a proposed new maximum sentence of three years in prison and an unlimited fine, in order to end the serious disruption and risk to life this guerrilla protest tactic poses – enabling us get on with delivering on our manifesto commitments. 
  • These measures will give our police the powers they need to crack down on disruptive protests that threaten the progress of key levelling up projects and make our streets safer.

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