Sunak rejects UN claims eco activist prison sentences ‘stifle free speech’

Rishi Sunak has rejected claims from the United Nations (UN) that lengthy jail sentences for climate activists could stifle free speech in the UK.

The Prime Minister said it was “entirely right” to hand out tough punishments to protesters “intent on causing misery” to hard-working people after the UN suggested Britain had been too harsh in its approach.

In a letter to the UK Government seen by BBC News, Ian Fry, the UN special rapporteur, warned that the sentences handed to two Just Stop Oil activists who scaled the Dartford Crossing in October last year were “significantly more severe” than past penalties for similar offences.

Mr Fry, whose brief covers the promotion and protection of human rights in the context of climate change, said he was worried about the “exercise of their rights to freedom of expression and freedom of peaceful assembly and association”.

But Mr Sunak said it was right to hand “tough sentences” to “selfish protesters intent on causing misery to the hard-working majority”.

Responding to the BBC report on social media, the Prime Minister said in a tweet: “Those who break the law should feel the full force of it.

“It’s entirely right that selfish protesters intent on causing misery to the hard-working majority face tough sentences.

“It’s what the public expects and it’s what we’ve delivered.”

In April, Morgan Trowland, then 40, was jailed for three years, and Marcus Decker, then 34, for two years and seven months for their protest at the Dartford Crossing.

Southend Crown Court heard that they forced the Queen Elizabeth Bridge to close for roughly 40 hours, causing miles of jams as traffic was forced to use the tunnel instead.

In his letter, sent on Aug 15, Mr Fry said the new Public Order Act “appears to be a direct attack on the right to the freedom of peaceful assembly”, according to the BBC.

The legislation, which passed in May, is designed to strengthen police powers to clamp down on protests judged to be disruptive.

Mr Fry told the BBC he had not yet received a response to his letter, despite requesting a reply within 60 days.

He accused the UK Government of “a general disregard for human rights concerns”, saying “most countries take these letters seriously and respond”.

Asked for comment, the Home Office pointed to a tweet it posted on Tuesday afternoon featuring footage of Trowland and Decker scaling the Queen Elizabeth Bridge.

The caption read: “These men were sentenced under legislation in line with international law. Essex Police stated disruption affected a heavily pregnant woman who needed urgent medical help.

“The right to peaceful protest is fundamental. The right to disrupt the public isn’t.”

UN agency accused of Rwanda evidence ‘bias’

The row comes after senior Tories rounded on the UN’s refugee agency over its evidence that fed into last week’s explosive Rwanda judgment, accusing it of bias and hypocrisy.

In throwing out the Government’s appeal, the Supreme Court judges said extensive submissions by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) were of “particular significance”.

But critics said the UNHCR was “not neutral” in the controversy that left Mr Sunak’s asylum policy in tatters.

Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg, the former cabinet minister, said: “The weight given to the UNHCR throughout the judgment is odd.

“Why is its view preferred to our elected government’s? That the UNHCR then processes Libyan refugees in Rwanda is bizarre and surely debases its evidence.”

Philip Davies, a senior backbench Tory MP and member of the Common Sense Group, said: “The UNHCR are not an impartial bystander in this. They are in effect lobbying for their own particular view of the world.”

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights has been approached for comment.