The Appleby horse fair is among Britain’s oldest and most colourful traditions. But this celebration in Cumbria and other Gypsy cultural events will be criminalised under new legislation planned by Priti Patel, Gypsy leaders have warned. The market town of Appleby-in-Westmorland is transformed every summer by the annual gathering of members of the Gypsy, Roma and Traveller (GRT) community, with thousands of tourists flocking to watch horses being washed in the River Eden and to buy traditional Gypsy goods. Yet Billy Welch, one of the fair’s organisers, has warned the home secretary the Appleby event is threatened by measures in the police, crime, sentencing and courts bill, which is coming before MPs this week. Welch, who is the shera rom or Gypsy spokesman, told Patel that members of the GRT community were anxious because the legislation was reminiscent of laws passed during prewar Germany. The bill would mean police could confiscate their homes if they did not immediately move on if local people complained, he said, yet there is a substantial shortage of approved sites, which means Gypsies have nowhere legal to stop. Thousands of Gypsies from the Sinti and Romany communities make traditional migrations lasting 10 days to Appleby, stopping by the side of the road because there are not enough approved sites, Welch said. “We have been here for centuries. We are British – our grandfathers and fathers fought in the last two world wars. They sacrificed their lives to defend this country. We are not society’s rejects, just to be treated like this by this government.” He said the fair showed that the persistent prejudice about Gypsies and crime was a myth. “The crime rate actually goes down,” he said. “About 70% of the people that come are from the settled community and there are about 40,000 people there.” In a letter to Patel, Welch wrote: “The bill as it stands creates a new criminal offence. A person who does not immediately leave a piece of public or private land when asked to do so (based only on ‘reasonable suspicion’ that they have, or will, cause damage, disturbance or disruption) may be arrested, fined, and imprisoned and have their vehicles confiscated. “Although the bill makes no reference to ethnicity, this provision will in effect make criminals of law-abiding Gypsies and Travellers as well as homeless people and ‘wild-campers’ who live in vans, because the offence is in refusing to leave, which requires no evidence of antisocial behaviour, but merely suspicion that it is likely.” He said there was widespread prejudice against Gypsies and Travellers, which would be encouraged by the bill. “The bill underestimates the extent and the power of casual racism, experienced by Gypsies and Travellers,” he wrote. “The people I represent are anxious about these proposals and with good reason. They appear to be reminiscent of Nazi Germany in the 1930s, and the start of the process of ethnic cleansing in which Gypsies were forced off the road by fines and imprisonment. “Their horses and vehicles were confiscated, which eventually led to them being sent to death camps or murdered on the side of the road. There are still many Gypsies alive who lost their families in that Holocaust, and they have not forgotten – this is how it began.” In July 1926, during the Weimar republic, the Bavarian parliament passed a law for “Combating Gypsies, Vagrants and the Workshy”, according to The Holocaust: Roots, History and Aftermath by Holocaust historian David Crowe. The law required Roma and Sinti to obtain a special annual travel permit to enter the region. Children were banned from travelling with their parents without proof that arrangements had been made for schooling and “itinerants” were banned from travelling in groups. Police were able to arrest Gypsies if they could not provide evidence of regular work and, without going to court, send them to a workhouse. The law was adopted elsewhere in prewar Germany and formed the basis of further Nazi persecution, which led to the killing of 500,000 Gypsies in concentration camps and death camps. “Of course, I am not suggesting in any way that is your intention,” Welch wrote, “but these are sensitive matters and the power of arrest and confiscation with no evidence of wrongdoing is deeply worrying.” Lee Anderson, the Tory MP for Ashfield in Nottinghamshire, claimed during last month’s Commons debate on the new bill that people from Gypsy encampments were thieves who did not follow Gypsy traditions. Police, the Board of Deputies of British Jews, and the human rights group Liberty have all raised concerns about the provisions in the bill. Marie van der Zyl, president of the Board of Deputies, said in March that any new policy on unauthorised encampments must be “very careful in terms of its impact” on GRT communities, and spoke of the Jewish community’s shared history with Gypsy and Romany people. Liberty’s analysis of the bill said it was “a direct attack on the way of life” of GRT communities. Police may impound vehicles during criminal proceedings – some trials are now delayed by more than two years – which means families would be made homeless, the group said. In 2019, the group Friends, Families and Travellers asked 45 police forces and 40 police and crime commissioners about the government’s consultation that preceded the bill. Three quarters said police did not need any new powers and 84% did not support the criminalisation of unauthorised encampments. The Home Office did not dispute Welch’s description of the bill, but said it had engaged with GRT representatives through a round table in May 2019, and at regular liaison meetings between the government and GRT members. A spokesperson said: “The vast majority of Travellers are law abiding, and we recognise their right to follow a nomadic way of life in line with their cultural heritage. “Unauthorised encampments reflect badly on the law-abiding Traveller community – they can cause misery to those who live nearby, with communities impacted by problems such as being unable to access or use their land, and excessive noise and littering. “It’s therefore right we are giving the police the powers they need to address this issue and the government will continue its work to provide more authorised sites for Travellers to reside on. We expect police to treat all communities with respect and enforcement decisions will absolutely not be made on the basis of ethnicity or race.”