THE Metropolitan Police could face hundreds of lawsuits for false imprisonment if the High Court rules its ban on climate change protests unlawful, Extinction Rebellion (XR) said today.

The High Court will deliver its judgment tomorrow on the decision to ban all XR protests across London during the second week of the Autumn Rebellion.

Human rights lawyer Tobias Garnett from XR’s legal strategy team called the ban an “unprecedented and unlawful curtailment of the right to protest” and warned that it would risk criminalising those who want to call attention to climate change.