1,000 signatures reached
To: Priti Patel, Home Secretary
Stop the SpyCops Bill
Urgently withdraw the dangerous Covert Human Intelligence Sources (Criminal Conduct) Bill.
Why is this important?
The "CHIS" Bill would allow state spies to commit crimes in the UK and overseas with impunity - without even exempting crimes like murder, torture and sexual offences.
These extreme powers would be handed to a broad range of agencies - from police and MI5, to the Department of Health and even the Food Standards Agency.
This is being rushed through Parliament at breakneck speed with insufficient scrutiny.
Just this week, environmental campaigner Kate Wilson was in court fighting for justice. She was manipulated into a romantic relationship for two years by Mark "Stone" - who she later found out was Mark Kennedy, an undercover police spy.
But this Bill would prevent victims of state spies from seeking redress, by protecting those who commit authorised crimes from civil liability forever.
Police spies have abused innocent campaigners in the UK for decades - from environmental activists to trade unions and race equality campaigners. Undercover police even infiltrated the grieving family of the murdered black teenager, Stephen Lawrence, during their quest for justice.
Undercover state agents have been involved in conflict too. Former Prime Minister David Cameron found they were responsible for “shocking levels of state collusion” in the murder of lawyer Pat Finucane in Northern Ireland.
Currently, prosecutors decide whether it's in the public interest to trial undercover police crimes. But the SpyCops Bill would bypass prosecutors entirely, allowing state agencies the unprecedented power to declare serious breaches of UK law ‘lawful’, as long as agents had an internal authorisation.
This Bill is unnecessary, unconstitutional and unconscionable - it must be stopped.
