WORKINGTON Conservatives have hit out at Cumbrian Labour Lords after they voted to oppose controversial changes to the way protests are policed.

The Government's Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill will now go back to the House of Commons so MPs can respond.

Workington Conservatives have hit out at Lord Campbell-Savours, Lord Liddle and Baroness Hayman after they voted with their fellow Lords to defeat the bill on some of its most contentious parts - including plans to give the police new powers to stop protests in England and Wales if they are deemed to be too noisy and disruptive.

In a statement, Workington Conservatives said: "We don't hear very often, but how does Labour's representation in Cumbria vote?

"Last night, your Labour Lords and the noble Baroness voted against our policing bill, siding instead with Insulate Britain and Extinction Rebellion protestors who blocked highways, ambulances and workplaces.

"They voted to make it to harder for the British people to get on with their lives."

But the former Workington MP and now Baroness Sue Hayman of Ullock, who voted to oppose the bill, said that some of the powers included in the bill were 'an unacceptable removal of rights'.

She said: "Labour voted to increase sentences for people who block motorways (amdt 150A).

"It is absolutely unacceptable to put lives at risk disrupting motorways or to block ambulances passing. So that has gone into the bill because Labour supported it - we narrowed it to do what it actually needs to do, which is target people who block motorways and major roads

"The Tories voted against Labour plans to protect schools and vaccine centres from hostile protests, by putting in instant buffer zones around them.

"There is only something in this bill against those vile, intimidating protests because Labour and the Lords forced it in by defeating the Government

"The other powers that were voted against on bloc had no parliamentary scrutiny whatsoever - the Commons had never even seen them.

"The Government tried to force in last minute, rushed, extreme powers - like being able to stop and search any member of the public who is anywhere near to a protest (not even on the protest) without cause or suspicion.

"This is an unacceptable removal of rights from the British public."