Greater clarity is needed on what forms of protest are lawful

Editorial: As things stand, MPs and ministers have no place criticising the Metropolitan Police or any other force for trying to make sense of complicated and contradictory rules

People attend a vigil for Sarah Everard in Clapham this month (EPA)

The risk of a third lockdown cannot be discounted, and it is real enough to give pause for thought. New infections are on the rise in Europe, they remain uncomfortably high in parts of Britain, the vaccine rollout is slowing, at least temporarily, and new “variants of concern” keep popping up.

The case for caution is as strong now as it was when the government published its “roadmap” a few weeks ago. There is no case for easing lockdown prematurely, as some frustrated Conservative backbenchers are lobbying for. Such is their impatience that they are threatening to rebel when the emergency powers come to the Commons for renewal on Thursday. They will not succeed, and do not deserve to succeed – but the experience of maintaining public order in recent weeks means that these regulations do need to be amended.

It is the fault of politicians – MPs in every party – that the laws on public assembly and protest are such a tangle. The police are tasked with trying to uphold contradictory laws. They could not win in such circumstances, and particularly when the courts declined to clarify in advance of the circumstances what might constitute a lawful protest.