- guardian.co.uk, Thursday January 18 2001 02.52 GMT
In another clear indication that the government is putting its weight behind the beleaguered research firm, Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS), the home secretary, Jack Straw, also revealed that a one-off payment of £1m would go to help Cambridgeshire police's battle against extremists.
The announcements demonstrate the government's growing concern about the future of HLS, which could be forced to close tomorrow if the Royal Bank of Scotland bows to pressure from anti-vivisection campaigners and calls in a £22m loan which it has been extending since August.
Both Tony Blair and the science minister, Lord Sainsbury, have spoken out this week against the protesters. There is fear that jobs and millions pounds of business could be lost if laboratories like HLS are driven out of business.
Mr Straw's intervention stepped up the pressure both on the protesters, who have picketed branches of the Royal Bank of Scotland this week, and on the bank itself not to withdraw the loan.
Until now, both politicians and business have been accused of appeasing the animal rights lobby - and yesterday Whitehall acknowledged the point in tougher language.
Mr Straw said: "We are absolutely determined to tackle these so-called animal rights protesters, many of whom do not hesitate to use violence and intimidation to achieve their ends. It is wholly unacceptable for this small minority to attempt to stop individuals and businesses going about their legitimate business."
Though ministers already have what Mr Straw called "tough laws in this area" they have ordered a rapid review of the police and criminal justice bill - the so-called "yobs" bill - which is due to be published tomorrow, with a view to adding late amendments.
It could lead to an expansion of restrictions on what is known as "watching and besetting" outside people's homes - picketing houses and acting in an intimidatory way, for instance, by shouting "scab" during an industrial dispute.
Sending intimidatory mail, a frequent tactic in the HLS dispute, may also be made harder to do by removing the "reasonable grounds" defence.
Mr Straw's announcement alarmed civil liberty bodies who fear that a sledgehammer is again being taken to crack a nut - in ways that would jeopardise the rights of free assembly and expression, both enshrined in the 1998 Human Rights Act now in force.
Mr Straw's move also failed to impress the Research Defence Society, which represents scientists in the frontline of animal rights militancy. "These half-measures will do little or nothing to prevent the harassment, intimidation and violence that animal rights campaigners have been meting out over the last couple of years," said Mark Matfield, the society's executive director.
Tomorrow, the Royal Bank of Scotland will decide whether to extend its loan to HLS. Campaigners have picketed the bank fiercely, calling for it to withdraw the loan.
The bank is under pressure from government ministers to continue supporting the controversial lab, which has suffered a collapse in its share price as investors have pulled out of the company.
Yesterday, Citibank, an arm of one of America's big banks, admitted it had severed its links with Huntingdon.
Police confirmed for the first time yesterday that a series of nail bomb attacks sent through the mail to addresses in Cheshire, East Yorkshire, North Wales, West Midlands and North Yorkshire were the work of animal extremists.
