SCOTLAND YARD spent more than £8 million policing sit-down protests against the proscription of Palestine Action, analysis showed today.

The Defend Our Juries (DOJ) campaign group organised the Lift The Ban demonstrations in more than 20 cities across the country in the five months to November.

Today it shared data obtained under freedom of information laws that showed the cost of policing six of the protests that took place in London: Parliament Square, Trafalgar Square, Ministry of Justice, Tavistock Square Peace Garden, the Home Office and the Royal Courts of Justice.

The data showed a “staggering over-deployment of police at the protest in Tavistock Square Peace Garden where there were 36 Met police present for every person arrested,” said DOJ.

The London actions saw the deployment of 8,122 policing staff as well as an unspecified umber of staff supplied by other forces as so-called “mutual aid” (£1.7m).

The Met incurred staff costs of £4,521,000 and overtime of £1,459,000, with property services, vehicle costs and catering making up the rest.

DOJ said that the cost of policing all of the protests across the country would be several times higher.

A DOJ spokesperson said: “It turns out that carting off vicars, pensioners and military veterans into police vans for alleged terrorism offences, not only tramples over our fundamental rights and makes our country look like an authoritarian dictatorship in front of the world’s cameras, it is also soaking up huge amounts of public resources.

“The total costs of policing Lift The Ban actions is likely to be in the tens of millions of pounds. And that’s just the start. There’s the CPS costs of preparing the prosecutions, the cost as people get dragged through the courts, and the cost of defending the judicial review. 

“It’s time for the Home Secretary to lift this ludicrous ban and bring an end to this scandalous waste of public money.”

Green Party peer Jenny Jones said: “The legislation that we are passing in Parliament is becoming more and more restrictive and causing the police some confusion and huge expense. 

“It’s time for our government to have another look at all the repressive laws they have pushed through and take responsibility for creating a terrible mess and costing the taxpayer millions of pounds.”