Noisy eco-rallies will be banned under laws set to sail through Parliament

NOISY eco rallies will be banned under laws set to sail through Parliament last night.

Cops will be able to crack down on protesters who use “noise as a weapon”.

It is thought it will block any use of drums, whistles and shouting deemed “damaging”.

MPs were expected to back the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill — but insisted that the powers were limited.

Writing for Tory grassroots site ConHome, Policing Minister Kit Malthouse said: “We’ve seen some truly ridiculous claims, even that the Bill bans ‘people singing in the street’, which is just nonsense.”

He added: “We have all seen the rise in incidents recently where protesters use excessive noise as a weapon.

“This measure will only be used in exceptional circumstances, where police chiefs consider the volume damaging.”

Mr Malthouse said that noisy protests can cause “significant psychological damage” and “intrude disproportionately on the rights of others”.

He added: “On the admittedly rare occasions . . . these powers would allow the police to impose conditions on the protest.”

But MPs have voted down an amendment supported by Labour to make misogyny a hate crime.

Mr Malthouse said experts had warned it would be “damaging” to sex offence prosecutions.

He added: “Prosecutors would need to prove a ‘hate crime’ occurred as part of another offence, such as rape, making it harder to prosecute sexual offences and domestic abuse.”