Jeremy Corbyn addresses tens of thousands of London Kill the Bill protesters

Jeremy Corbyn addressed tens of thousands of Kill the Bill activists in London today before scuffles with police broke out in Parliament Square. 

Protestors chanted, banged drums and waved placards at the demo to rail against the Police, Crime, Courts and Sentencing Bill, which will impose certain conditions on future protests.

There appeared to be over 10,000 people at the rally, which was held in a crowded Parliament Square. For comparison, nearby Trafalgar Square is able to hold 20,000 people when full. 

A small group of around 50-100 protesters in London began to block roads around Parliament Square and chanted anti-police slogans including ‘All Cops Are B******s’. 

The former Labour leader stood next to a statue of Mahatma Gandhi as he spoke at the rally, describing the Government-proposed bill as a ‘very dangerous, slippery slope’ and defending the right to protest. 

He said: ‘If we don’t protest, things don’t change’, which drew cheers and applause from onlookers. Close by, anti-lockdown demonstrators staged their own protest, supported by Mr Corbyn’s brother, Piers. 

Dozens of extra officers were brought in outside Parliament to help unblock the road for a McDonald’s lorry which became a target for the crowd, who whistled and booed as they stopped the driver from passing.

Bottles and missiles were thrown as police held batons aloft, screaming for the crowd to ‘get back’ and at least one officer was injured in the scuffle. A man was carried away by officers.

Police were also seen marching away a young woman crying out in pain following clashes at the demo, with her friends saying she had sustained an injury to her shoulder. 

A separate group in Parliament Square was seen demonstrating with anti-sexism slogans, including ‘educate your sons’ and ‘misogyny is the virus’, chanting ‘women scared everywhere, police and Government do not care’. 

Three Kill the Bill protestors unfurled a banner which read ‘Kill Cops’ and held aloft the incendiary message outside the Houses of Parliament – just 50 metres away from where PC Keith Palmer was stabbed to death in 2017.

The ‘national weekend of action’ has spread beyond the capital to cities including Newcastle, Liverpool, Brighton, Bristol and Manchester. 

In Norwich, Kill The Bill graffiti was daubed on a city centre war memorial while protestors in Manchester blocked tram tracks in St Peter’s Square prompting police to move in and make arrests just after 5.30pm.

There have been a number of Kill The Bill protests held in recent weeks to show opposition to the Government’s proposed Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill 2021, which would give police in England and Wales more power to impose conditions on non-violent protests, including those deemed too noisy or a nuisance.  

Protesting is now legal in England following a change in Covid-19 lockdown rules which came into force on Monday, but organisers are required to submit risk assessments and ensure social distancing.

The rallies come as Covid deaths fall to their lowest in six months with the UK recording 10 fatalities, bringing the total to 126,826, and another 3,423 new infections. 

Liaison officers attempted to engage with them to move them along peacefully but they refused to cooperate.

Eventually the group moved on to the New Scotland Yard, the Metropolitan Police headquarters, where they continued with their anti-police rhetoric. 

Tensions are running high following the arrest of serving Metropolitan Police officer Wayne Couzens for the kidnap and murder of Sarah Everard and Met probationer Benjamin Hannam being convicted last week of belonging to a Neo-Nazi organisation.

Officers ringed the Winston Churchill statue and the Cenotaph – targets at previous protests – as crowds marched down from the meeting point in Hyde Park to Westminster.

Lorries trying to drive past the Houses of Parliament were blocked by crowds. One truck delivering flowers was forced to turn round and head back the opposite direction. 

One weeping female protester in Manchester was held against a police van, with protestors chanting ‘Kill the Bill’ as they blocked leaving trams. 

Tram passenger Mike Horton, 43, said: ‘There were lots of police and then they jumped on a few protesters. I got a real shock as I had just come to get on tram. They were shouting at the police and filming them with their phones.’

Protests and demonstrations were expected this weekend across England on what is forecast to be a is the first to benefit from the easing of ‘stay at home’ lockdown restrictions. 

On Saturday, activists, climate change campaigners, and the Black Lives Matter movement said they would join ‘kill the bill’ rallies in London and other towns and cities including Manchester, Leeds, Brighton and Bristol.

‘As protest is criminalised and our fake democracy is pushed further towards authoritarianism, we seek to find where we can come together with other movements to tackle the common causes that affect us all,’ said Alanna Byrne from environmental group Extinction Rebellion. 

Days of protests by the group paralysed parts of London in early 2019, action which helped fuel calls from some politicians for the police to be given the tougher powers to prevent excessive disruption. 

Another demonstrator, Mark Duncan, added: ‘The government are trying to curtail protests – especially BLM and XR – that is what this bill is all about. We want the clauses in this bill about protests quashed.’  

Organisers reminded protestors to stay socially distanced on this ‘national weekend of action’ as they attempted to control the crowds.

The Metropolitan Police have since said: ‘The majority of people at today’s events in Central London have tried to adhere to social distancing and Covid legislation.

‘A small minority are blocking the road at Parliament Square. Officers are on scene engaging and encouraging them to move so we can reopen the roads.’ 

A Met Police spokesman also told MailOnline: ‘Officers have been on the ground throughout the day engaging and encouraging those present to adhere to the current Covid legislation. There have been no arrests so far.’ 

But the ‘national weekend of action’ spread beyond the capital to cities including Newcastle, Liverpool, Brighton and Manchester.

Several hundred people gathered beneath Grey’s Monument in Newcastle for a similar Kill the Bill protest with a low-key response from Northumbria Police.

Protesters cheered as a singer with a guitar performed in opposition to the proposed bill as another attendee held up a placard saying: ‘We will not be silenced.’  

The crowd has since made its way through the city centre chanting: ‘Whose streets, our streets’ and ‘F*** Priti Patel’.

Many took the knee at the Civic Centre and held a minute’s silence for victims of oppression, after which a round of applause broke out. 

Meanwhile, more than 400 Kill The Bill protesters today marched through Manchester city centre.

They halted traffic as they walked from St Peter’s Square where they had held an hour-long rally as they shouted: ‘All cops are b*******’ and ‘Our streets’.

The march was largely peaceful with the exception of one teenage protester jumping on top of a blue McLaren sports car before banging on the roof. He was held by police but later let go. 

The protesters then gathered on the steps of Manchester Crown Court and chanted: ‘No justice, no peace.’

The protestors included animal rights, environmental and LGBT campaigners and waved a range of Socialist Worker Party Kill the Bill, Black Lives Matter and Trans Rights Now placards.

Nurse Matthew Hampson, 53, had earlier told the crowd: ‘Nurses are not just angry about the proposed one per cent pay cut, they are enraged.

‘We need to protest, that is why we need to stop this Bill.’ 

The rally, watched by police in Tactical Aid vehicles as well as officers on foot, took place under a 48-hour police dispersal order for the entire city centre.

The order gives police the power to tell a person engaged in anti-social behaviour, or who is likely to engage in anti-social behaviour, to leave a specified area – but it expired at 3pm.

It was imposed following an illegal rave in the city centre as well as 18 people being arrested at last week’s Kill the Bill protest in Manchester.

Protesters had sat on tram tracks and police had to apologise after one woman’s underwear was exposed when she was dragged away.

Elsewhere, around 300 protestors gathered outside Norwich City Hall as part of the country-wide demonstrations.

The protest passed off peacefully with a handful of police officers observing the event from a distance but graffiti carrying the Kill The Bill was daubed on the city’s war memorial.

The protests have been sparked by the proposed Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts bill would toughen measures officers can take to disperse demonstrations, such as imposing time and noise limits, which campaigners and activists fear would be used to curb dissent.

Since the bill was brought before parliament last month, there have been sporadic protests, notably in Bristol, southwest England, where demonstrations turned violent with officers and a police station bombarded with bricks and glass bottles, and police vehicles set on fire.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson criticised what he described as ‘disgraceful attacks’ on officers, but protesters have accused police of using heavy-handed tactics.   

Demonstrations had not been permitted while a coronavirus lockdown was in place, but restrictions were eased this week, meaning organised rallies can go ahead providing they are ‘COVID secure’.

In London, police warned, ‘enforcement action will be taken, if needed, in the interests of public health’.

Some senior officers have said the ‘kill the bill’ tag was deliberately provocative as ‘the bill’ is a nickname in Britain for the police.