Obviously I can see why its contentious, I'm a bit on the fence as to whether it's ok or not.
But the protests seem to be saying a white british person & a british person of a different ethnicity may be treated differently for the same crime.
But this makes no sense to me? My Muslim & dark skinned colleague is something like 5th generation british and isn't eligible for citizenship anywhere else. My white colleagues with Irish & polish ancestry can get citizenship in those countries so would fall into this law.
So isn't it more about immigration status (eg it's likely to hit 1st & 2nd generation Brits hardest) than race? Britain has millions of immigrants of european/white ancestry.