Will The Tory Rebellion Stop The Criminal Justice Bill?

The government is facing yet another political embarrassment in the coming weeks, this time a sizeable rebellion on its latest “law and order” bill.

- SEAN O'GRADY

And the current Criminal Justice Bill is a very silly bill indeed, according to its critics, at least as it pertains to the difficult issue of rough sleeping.

As has been picked up by the press, it will criminalise "nuisance" rough sleeping, and allow the police to arrest someone if an "excessive" smell is coming from them or their makeshift bedding, or even if they look like they are preparing to sleep rough. A fine of up to £2,500 may be imposed if they refuse to move on. "Insulting words" are also actionable, even though the world of the rough sleeper isn't well suited to polite discourse about their predicament.

Such odd, if not grotesquely cruel, clauses in the bill have understandably attracted cross-party opposition. The bill has made good progress through the House of Commons so far, but amendments will be tabled when the House returns from recess after 15 April, at the "report" stage. The Lords, a revising chamber designed to improve badly drafted legislation, may also take a view.

Why is the government doing this?

Think of it as Suella Braverman's leaving present to the British people. Before she was sacked (for the second time) as home secretary last November, she made it her mission to sweep the homeless off the streets, and included suitably draconian measures in what was then "her" Criminal Justice Bill.

You may also recall the harsh determination she brought to her mission, expressed in a notorious tweet: "The British people are compassionate. We will always support those who are genuinely homeless. But we cannot allow our streets to be taken over by rows of tents occupied by people, many of them from abroad, living on the streets as a lifestyle choice."