Spycops inquiry has revealed how Helen Steel was secretly monitored in her search for undercover officer who deceived her into relationship

At 2pm on 14 December 2002, Helen Steel, a well-known leftwing campaigner, and her parents landed at Auckland airport for a family holiday. It had been a tiring journey, so they were irritated when they were delayed leaving the airport for an hour.

What they did not know until recently is the reason for that delay. Their arrival had triggered a secret warning on Steel that had been put in place by police three weeks earlier. It prompted customs to carry out a discreet search of her luggage.

Technology to be used in six more areas next year as critics say tens of thousands of people will be forced into ‘digital police lineup’

The Metropolitan police is to expand its use of live facial recognition (LFR) technology, first into London’s West End by Christmas and then into a further six areas next year.

The new cameras will be fixed, and could be attached to street furniture such as lamp-posts. Critics said the new plans mean tens of thousands of people will be forced into a “digital police lineup”.

Exclusive: Biometrics commissioners say face-scanning not as effective as claimed and new laws needed to regulate use

• How does live facial recognition work and how many police forces use it?

• Guilty until proven innocent: shoppers falsely identified by facial recognition

Britain’s biometrics watchdogs have warned that national oversight of AI-powered face scanning to catch criminals is lagging far behind the technology’s rapid growth.

With the Metropolitan police almost doubling the number of faces they scan in London over the past 12 months and a rising use of the technology by retailers in the UK, Prof William Webster, the biometrics commissioner for England and Wales, said the “slow pace of legislation was trying to catch up with the real world” and “the horse had gone before the cart”.

An independent audit of the Met’s use of facial recognition technology (FRT) has been indefinitely postponed after the police requested delays.

Polling shows 57% of people believe the systems are “another step towards turning the UK into a surveillance society”.

A whistleblower claimed shop-based face-scanning systems had sometimes been misused by shop or security staff “maliciously” adding members of the public to watchlists.

A new UK civil resistance group has called for ‘mass shoplifting’ to focus attention on inequality, but recent stunts have led to arrests

Eve Middleton was sitting on a picnic blanket in a park, sharing out vegan biscuits with six fellow activists, when she saw a squad of police bearing down on them. About 30 officers, she said, surrounded the seven young people, and one officer told them: “Don’t run or you’ll be cuffed.”

Another officer focused on gathering evidence. “Whose Oreos are these?” they asked, seizing the biscuits.

Judicial independence is under threat as populist politicians target judges and authoritarian governments attempt constitutional reforms

• Revealed: Five EU governments found to ‘consistently’ dismantle rule of law

In March last year, a Paris court found Marine Le Pen guilty of embezzlement and barred her from running in next year’s presidential race in France. The far-right figurehead took to the airwaves to slam a “political decision” and “denial of democracy”.

Le Pen, who has appealed, said she had been subjected to a “tyranny of judges” and a “political assassination”. The “system” had dropped “a nuclear bomb” on her. The presiding judge was then threatened by others on social media and her home address shared.

I know enough about the erosion of civil rights to fear what I now see in the UK

• Lydia Gall is a senior Europe researcher at Human Rights Watch

• Right to protest is under attack in England and Wales, reports warn

I saw, at first hand, the slow erosion of the rule of law in Hungary. It began not with a single shocking act but with quiet legal changes that narrowed space for dissent; each step justified as reasonable or necessary, until suddenly, democracy itself felt like a performance rather than a reality. Watching current developments in the UK, it’s impossible not to feel an uneasy sense of deja vu.

Over the past few years, Britain has introduced a number of laws that have drastically curtailed the right to protest. The Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 and the Public Order Act 2023 grant police sweeping powers to restrict demonstrations, criminalise peaceful tactics and arrest people on vague grounds that they may have caused serious disruption or unease. Hundreds of arrests have followed, including for slow marching, linking arms, or carrying protest equipment. Many of those arrested have faced prosecution, with courts handing down fines, and in some cases, lengthy imprisonment for peaceful protest activities, reinforcing the chilling effect of these laws.

Lydia Gall is a senior Europe researcher at Human Rights Watch

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