EXTINCTION REBELLION has vowed to bring “millions to the streets” later this year in defiance of draconian Tory plans to roll out a new set of curbs on protests. 

The climate activist group said it was foolish for ministers to think that the new crackdown measures proposed in the Public Order Bill would stop people protesting “to demand their government acts to ensure a safe future for people in the UK and around the world.”

The Bill seeks to introduce new offences for “locking on” to and “interfering” with infrastructure like major roads, printing presses and oil terminals.  

Announced in the Queen Speech on Tuesday, the new law appears to be targeted at groups like Extinction Rebellion, Insulate Britain and Just Stop Oil, which have launched protests blocking infrastructure mentioned in the Bill. 

Responding to the new law, Extinction Rebellion said it will launch mass protests on September 10. 

“As we in Extinction Rebellion know full well: what we do works,” Charlie Waterhouse from the group said. 

“It’s worked countless times before. It has worked to give us weekends and the vote, human rights and freedom. And it will work again.”

Green groups have accused the government of “criminalising the right to protest.” 

Kevin Blowe, campaign co-ordinator of policing monitoring group Netpol, warned that proposed serious disruption prevention orders are “another dangerous escalation in the government’s efforts to suppress dissenting voices.”

The government said the orders would be used against people with “protest-related convictions or a history of causing serious disruptions at protests, to prevent them from continuing to commit such acts.”

Mr Blowe argued that this could put anyone who has organised with a direct-action group or participated in a large-scale protest at risk, adding that the measures could intimidate some from participating in protest altogether.