IN her New Year's message, Priti Patel outlined her priorities for 2022 including cracking down on "eco-protesters" and changing asylum rules.

The Home Secretary shared a video on social media where she claimed to be proud of many things the UK Government had achieved in 2021.

Looking ahead to 2022, Patel said that it is "vital" that her controversial Police and Crime Bill passed through Parliament.

The wide-ranging bill includes giving police in England and Wales more powers to impose conditions on non-violent protests judged to be too noisy with those convicted of breaking the potential new laws facing the prospect of jail time.

In early 2021, several "kill the bill" protests were held in response to the legislation being introduced.

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Patel said that cracking down on eco-protesters was a priority, highlighting Insulate Britain protests that blocked busy roads and caused angry confrontations between motorists and protesters.

Patel said: "The bill will introduce mandatory life sentences for those who kill an emergency worker in the course of their duty and also crack down on the so-called eco-protesters on our roads and motorways that have caused misery to the law-abiding public.

“I will also continue to prioritise fixing our broken asylum system. It has been untouched for two decades, but passing our [Nationality and] Borders Bill into law in 2022 will finally give us the powers we need to deliver long-overdue change.

“A fairer system deterring illegal entry across the channel by cracking down on people smugglers and ending the legal merry-go-round of spurious asylum claims is what the British people expect and we will deliver.”

Patel's Nationality and Borders Bill includes criminalising "unofficial" ways of asylum seekers entering the UK with prison sentences a possibility for those found to have done so.

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Amnesty International has said that the bill "fails to provide any safe route to claim asylum" and will force people to continue to use smuggling gangs and perilous routes, such as crossing the English Channel in small boats, to get to the UK.

Patel also said the streets were safer thanks to a reduction in knife crime, gun crime and murders.

According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), there was an 8% decrease in knife-enabled crime in the year ending June 2021, compared with the previous year.

Homicides were also down 11%, it said, while offences involving firearms fell by 6%. All figures were for crimes recorded by the police in England and Wales.

However, the ONS stressed that patterns of crime over that period had been “significantly affected” by the Covid pandemic and Government instructions to limit social contact.