THOUSANDS of demonstrators pledged to continue fighting proposed policing laws outside Parliament following a fifth consecutive day of protest today.

Demonstrations were continuing nationwide in memory of Sarah Everard, who vanished after walking home alone in Clapham on March 3 and whose body was identified last Friday, today after the Morning Star went to print.

Tuesday night’s protest in London coincided with a parliamentary vote on the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill, which passed by 359 votes to 263.

Protesters who had gathered outside Westminster heard speeches on the Met’s heavy-handedness while policing a vigil for Ms Everard at Clapham Common and about dehumanising photos taken by police of Nicole Smallman and Bibaa Henry after their deaths. 
 
A legal observer from Black Protest Legal Support UK was arrested after the police incorrectly said they were not exempt from restrictions, according to the group’s Twitter.

A speaker from human rights campaign group Liberty said: “We are here today because government wants to pit us against one another, to criminalise our right to dissent, to challenge when we dare to stand up to power. 

“They are voting against our right to protest, they are telling us that objection to oppression is worse than the oppression itself. But protest is a fundamental human right, not a gift that the state can take or give away as a gift at its pleasing. 

“We demand the right to take to the streets. We demand the rights to organise together. We demand the right to be out at night. We are here, we are together, and we are not afraid.”

At the end of the protest, demonstrators marched through the streets of central London chanting “Kill the Bill.”

Hundreds of people also marched through Manchester on Tuesday night.

The protest began in St Peter’s Square and then through the city centre ending with a rally back in the square.

Among the banners carried was one declaring: “Priti’s Police State.” Another declared “Destroy Fascism.”

Protester Hannah Phillips told the Morning Star: “The mood was brilliant. Really good.

“There was lots of chanting — ‘Kill the Bill’ and anti-Tory chants. There was very little police presence — just standing in the background.

“More police came later and told people to disperse but the speeches had finished and it was all over by then so there was no fuss.”

Serving Metropolitan Police officer Wayne Couzens, 48, has been charged with Ms Everard’s kidnapping and murder with a provisional trial date set for October 25.