Parliament Square is slipping into ‘squalor and disorder’, report warns – POLITICO

LONDON — Westminster’s Parliament Square is sinking into “squalor and disorder” amid rising crime and fear among MPs and their peers of being attacked by protesters, a think tank has warned. Westminster.

An analysis by the centre-right Policy Exchange think tank – published on Monday – finds violent crime on the streets around the parliamentary estate has risen two and a half times faster than in London as a whole – and three and a half times. one and a half times faster than for the whole of the borough of Westminster over the past decade.

Between 2013/14 and 2021/22 recorded violent crime increased by 168% on streets or parts of streets within a quarter mile of Parliament. This compares to a 67% increase in London and a 47% increase in the borough of Westminster.

“Nowhere else in Europe, with the possible exception of the Eiffel Tower, is more famous, or more emblematic of its nation,” said report author Andrew Gilligan, a former adviser to Boris Johnson when he was mayor of London. “Yet what should be a showpiece has turned into a degree of squalor and disorder.”

Public order offenses also increased around parliament by 252% compared to 93% in London and 75% for the borough of Westminster.

Gilligan’s report says the increase in breaches has coincided with relaxed rules on Westminster protests, and warns that ‘far left and right wing protesters’ can threaten MPs, ministers and journalists in the exercise of their work.

Local police are criticized in the report for allowing serious potential security threats to develop, including the erection of semi-permanent structures which could be used to hide a bomb.

Gilligan warns that some MPs and peers have previously said they were afraid to leave the parliament buildings at times and were unconvinced the police would protect them. Control of public spaces around parliament is currently split between eight different official agencies, its report points out.

The report recommends imposing a new legal duty on the police to protect the UK’s democratic institutions and access to parliamentary grounds for those who have business there. It says Westminster City Council should make a wider public space protection order to cover anti-social behavior around Parliament. And the report calls for a “controlled area” for protests to be reinstated before 2011 – roughly within a kilometer of parliament.