Groups representing human rights and green issues are urging the Home Secretary to “reverse the crackdown” on peaceful protests.
An open letter – signed by 92 organisations including Amnesty International UK, Greenpeace UK, Liberty and Christian Aid – was sent to Yvette Cooper.
It comes after five Just Stop Oil protesters were handed four- and five-year prison sentences for their involvement in a protest that disrupted the M25 in London for more than four days in 2022.
The jail terms, which are thought to be the longest sentences ever given in the country for peaceful protest, have been condemned by many including UN human rights commissioner Volker Turk – who described them as “deeply troubling”.
Writing to Ms Cooper, the groups said the sentences are not an isolated incident but the result of a “deliberate strategy by previous governments to criminalise and shrink the space for peaceful protest in our democracy”.
They said the new Labour Government now faces “a clear choice between allowing its dire consequences to play out under its watch, or do something to prevent it”.
The signatories cited the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 and the Public Order Act 2023 as two pillars of the Tory government’s strategy, describing them as “gagging laws”.
They also criticised previous attorney generals for removing legal defences available to peaceful protesters, adding that this has led to “the absurd situation of juries being prevented from hearing crucial evidence from defendants about the reasons for their actions”.
The campaign groups referred to the arrest of 630 peaceful protesters in just one month last year, as well as demonstrators being rounded up at the coronation ceremony for carrying placards, and 11 people being arrested for holding signs outside court defending the right of jurors to exercise their conscience.
The letter said: “The imprisonment of peaceful protesters is hard to justify at the best of times but it seems utterly absurd when the criminal justice system is creaking at the seams and the Home Office is grappling with an overcrowding crisis in our prisons.”
It added that the right to protest is a “vital safety valve for our democracy and an engine of social progress”.
“Without it, we would have no votes for women, no right to a work-free weekend, no freedom to take a walk in the countryside, and no ban on commercial whaling and fracking,” it said.
The letter called on Ms Cooper to attend a civil society roundtable to discuss the concerns.
Areeba Hamid, Greenpeace UK co-executive director, said: “Protest can be annoying and inconvenient, but it’s annoying and inconvenient protest that has led to the end of slavery, votes for women, basic workers’ rights and the bans on nuclear testing and commercial whaling.
“It’s been the engine of social and environmental progress for over a century, and that’s why we can’t afford to become a country that routinely sends peaceful protesters to jail for years.”
Ms Hamid said the crackdown is also “damaging the UK’s standing on the global stage”.
“Labour now faces a clear choice between letting the slow-moving car crash unfold under their watch or taking action to stop it,” she said.
Sam Grant, Liberty’s director of advocacy, said: “The trend of increasingly severe prison sentences for non-violent protesting is incredibly concerning for our democracy, and is a stark reminder of the dire state of our right to protest in the UK.
“We need a Government that listens to, rather than punishes protesters, and for the dangerous legislation of recent years to be immediately overturned.”
A Home Office spokesman said: “We recognise the democratic right that people must be free to peacefully express their views, but they should do so within the bounds of the law. Protest organisers should engage fully with the police.
“The letter has been received and we will respond in due course.”
