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‘Don’t use me as an excuse’: Paramedics slam anti-protest bill

The Tories justify the Public Order Bill by saying protests ‘block emergency services’. Ambulance workers don’t agree

By Anita Mureithi
‘Don’t use me as an excuse’: Paramedics slam anti-protest bill
Emergency services have consistently been used by the government to justify introducing tougher anti-protest measures in its clampdown on "disruptive" action
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Ambulance workers have rubbished the Tories’ claim that controversial new anti-protest laws are necessitated by the impact of blocked roads on emergency services.

Thousands of Unison ambulance staff walked out on Monday, just weeks after Rishi Sunak’s government announced plans for separate anti-strike laws that could force people back to work to provide so-called “minimum service levels”.

For Glenn Austin, who has worked as a paramedic for 20 years, anti-strike laws and anti-protest laws are “anti-democratic”.

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Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0