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The Home Office is set to decide on the fate of embattled ‘independent’ anti-extremism adviser John Woodcock – AKA Lord Walney – this week, according to a Home Office letter seen by Byline Times.
It follows action by legal campaigners Good Law Project and the campaign group Defend Our Juries, urging the new Government to remove the controversial adviser and former Labour MP from his role as the Government’s ‘independent adviser on political violence and disruption’.
Woodcock was appointed to the unpaid job in 2020 under then-PM Boris Johnson. The peer was a Labour MP under Jeremy Corbyn, but quit and endorsed Johnson in the 2019 General Election. He was subsequently given a peerage by the then-PM.
He has since been a major figure in pushing for a raft of anti-protest legislation, targeting groups such as Just Stop Oil and Extinction Rebellion, as well as pro-Palestine campaigners.
In May, he suggested charging protest groups for the cost of policing their demonstrations, which has been branded “unworkable” by London Assembly members and policing expert Matt Parr.
Following initial confusion over whether he would be sacked by Keir Starmer’s Government, the Home Office confirmed on 8 October that his role was being “considered” for the chop as part of a wider review of counter-extremism policy.
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Good Law Project wrote to the Home Office with a dossier of evidence which the group believes shows Walney “should not be in post as the government’s protest adviser.”
They have also written to the House of Lords Commissioner asking for Walney to be investigated for potentially breaching the House of Lords’ Code of Conduct over conflicts of interest.
Now in a letter to Good Law Project, a Home Office spokesperson confirmed that the fate of the adviser’s job is likely to be sealed “at the end of the month” – i.e. this week.
The spokesperson said: “Thank you for your correspondence of 10 October 2024, to the Home Secretary about Lord Walney’s role as the Independent Adviser on Political Violence and Disruption…
“As you are aware, the Home Office is currently reviewing the role of the Independent Adviser on Political Violence and Disruption through the Counter-Extremism sprint. This will conclude at the end of the month. It would not be right to pre-empt the findings of the sprint.”
Lord Walney has responded to the opposition campaign by Defend Our Juries and others. Last week, he linked to a protest guidance document from the group, claiming it showed they were “a well-resourced network adept in tactics like burner phones usually deployed by hardened criminals” defending “convicted climate vandals.”
“Extreme protestors [are] systematically pushing waves of young people concerned about the climate crisis into our breaking criminal justice system, damaging their lives and putting further pressure on our courts and prisons,” he claimed.
However, the live Google document he linked to was swiftly updated to list his alleged conflicts of interests, via paid roles with lobbying organisations linked to the defence industry.
In a petition from GLP, the group said: “Freedom of expression and the right to protest [were] drastically eroded under the last Government. Police now have the power to arrest people just for marching down the road or for carrying placards, and the courts can throw them in jail simply for speaking about their reason for protesting.
“[Lord Walney’s] 2024 report, Protecting Democracy from Coercion, urged the Government to focus their attention on what he calls the ‘extreme left’ – predominantly those campaigning on the climate crisis and protesting for Palestine.
“But whilst making these recommendations, Walney was being paid by lobbying organisations whose clients include oil and gas companies and those selling weapons to Israel.”
Byline Times has previously asked Lord Walney about his alleged conflicts of interest, which was raised by Green Party co-leader Carla Denyer MP in the Commons earlier this month. Commons leader Lucy Powell MP promised to get a response to Carla Denyer’s oral question on Walney by last Monday.
Good Law Project Campaigns Manager Hannah Greer told Byline Times: “Lord Walney’s position as a so-called ‘independent’ government advisor making recommendations, such as increasing protection around private security and energy companies from protesters, is untenable when he works for lobbying firms with oil and gas and arms companies as clients. Over 15,000 signatories to our petition strongly agree.
“We welcome the Home Office’s review of his advisory role. The evidence we have given them about Lord Walney’s conflicts of interest is unequivocal and must be properly investigated before the review concludes this week”.
Tim Crosland, an organiser for Defend Our Juries, added: “It’s scandalous that Yvette Cooper has allowed Lord Walney to keep driving the debate around protest, presenting him to the public as ‘independent’, while knowing full well he is a lobbyist for the arms and oil industries that most benefit from a crackdown on those holding them to account.
“This doesn’t end now with axing his post. What’s needed is repair of the harm he and others like him have done.”
Defend Our Juries campaigns to alert juries of their right to acquit climate campaigners on the basis of their conscience, and is calling for the release of peaceful climate and anti-war protesters imprisoned for breaking anti-protest legislation.
In a statement from Defend Our Juries last Thursday (24 October), the group said: “Since the publication of Lord Walney’s report in May, calling for members of groups such as Just Stop Oil and Palestine Action to be treated as organised crime groups, more than 50 members of those groups have been jailed, some for as long as four or five years, following trials in which they have been banned from explaining to the jury why they have done what they have done.”
The Free Political Prisoners campaign has written to the Attorney General calling for a meeting to discuss Lord Walney’s role, which the Attorney General refused in a letter dated 4 October.
Over 15,000 people have signed Good Law Project’s petition calling for Woodcock to be removed by the new Labour Government.
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