Tory MP: New law should be passed to make it harder to hold protests on Remembrance Sunday

• Bob Seely says marches with a history of violent disruption should be moved

A new law should be passed to make it harder to hold protests on Remembrance Sunday, a Conservative MP has said.

Bob Seely, who served in the Armed Forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, said the government should legislate to raise the bar that needs to be met to allow protests for future Remembrance days.

Writing in The Mail on Sunday, Mr Seely says organisations with a history of violent disruption, or links with proscribed terror groups would have their marched ‘moved’ to another weekend.

Mr Seely, who sits on the Foreign Affairs Committee, writes: ‘The bar for protests on Remembrance Sunday should be higher than other weekends. It should be easier for police chiefs to say “no”. It should be easier for the Home Secretary to ask.

‘Many of us would have assumed there was an unwritten rule that this weekend, above all, was sacrosanct. It’s time for that unwritten rule to become written.’

Bob Seely (pictured), who served in the Armed Forces in Iraq and Afghanistan , said the government should legislate to raise the bar that needs to be met to allow protests for future Remembrance days

The MP criticises the pro-Palestine marches in London, which he says are ‘designed to offend’. Pictured: Pro-Palestine marchers on November 11

Mr Seely says organisations with a history of violent disruption, or links with proscribed terror groups would have their marched ‘moved’ to another weekend. Pictured: Far right counter protestors on November 11

READ MORE: BOB SEELY MP: This is a time for respectful remembrance – not barren hatred 

He adds: ‘I understand that tolerance is about putting up with opinions you don’t like. And no one wants government by media circus. But for this one weekend, we need to legislate for protests to meet a higher bar before they can go ahead.

‘So how can that be achieved? In practise, if you are an organisation, or you are linked to an organisation that has a history of organised protests that lead to violent disruption, or you or your organisation has a history of engagement with proscribed terror groups, your march would be moved to a weekend other than Remembrance weekend.’

Mr Seely says the change could be made by putting down an amendment to the upcoming Criminal Justice Bill.

The MP criticises the pro-Palestine marches in London, which he says are ‘designed to offend’. He writes: ‘I believe in the right to protest, but that right has never been unlimited and without restrictions, especially given the anti-Semitic chanting and symbolism present in recent protests.’

‘Remembrance weekend is our shared national act of communal remembrance, one that brings the past, however briefly, into our present. What Remembrance Sunday is not, is a media peg for the hard left or hard-line Islamists to hijack our memorial weekend for their protests.’

The Isle of White MP says: ‘This weekend should be a time for silent reflection for the silent majority. I remember my English grandad Billy, who as commander of his South Notts Hussars Artillery Regiment, was ordered to fight ‘to the last man and the last round’ in June 1942 in the burning Libyan desert. I remember my own military comrades shot by the Taliban.’

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