TORY MPs have voted for a second time to reinstate restrictions on “noisy” protests, despite strong opposition to the “draconian” measure in the Lords. 

The government’s widely condemned Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill will now return to the House of Lords on Thursday after MPs rejected a series of peers’ amendments on Monday night. 

They include reinstating a provision into the Bill which seeks to give police powers to shut down protests that are deemed too noisy. MPs backed the move by 267 to 202 votes. 

The debate was the latest tussle between the upper and lower chamber which have both dug their heels in on a series of provisions imposing restrictions on protests. 

Peers have twice voted to remove the government’s noisy protest restriction from the Bill. 

During the debate on Monday, the government revealed it had made a concession on noise, which sees the removal of the term “serious unease” from a series of conditions under which police can use to restrict protest. 

But shadow home office minister Sarah Jones dismissed the change as “small.” 

“We are glad that the government has partially admitted that the term should never have made it onto the statute books,” she said. 

Defending the provision, Home Office minister Kit Malthouse said the measures have “no bearing upon the content of the noise, merely the impact the noise is having from a decibel or distress point of view.”

Commenting on the debate, Green Party MP Caroline Lucas tweeted: “Tory MPs just voted *again* to ban protests which are ‘too noisy’ — a direct assault on our democracy [and] precious [right to protest].”