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Anyone showing support for Palestine Action 'will feel the full force of the law', justice minister says
Good morning and welcome to our live coverage of UK politics.
The government has defended its controversial proscription of protest group Palestine Action, with the justice minister, Alex Davies-Jones, saying supporters of a “terrorist organisation will feel the full force of the law”.
The comments come after a huge demonstration against the proscription took place in London over the weekend in which 532 people were arrested. The majority of those arrested, 348, were aged 50 or over, according to official figures.
Responding to questions about the protest this morning on BBC Breakfast, Davies-Jones said:
I want to thank the police for their bravery and their courage in carrying out their diligent duties in the line of public protection, and I want to state that the right to peacefully protest in this country is a cornerstone of our democracy, and of course, we respect that.
But with regards to Palestine Action, they are a proscribed terrorist organisation and their actions have not been peaceful.
They have violently carried out criminal damage to RAF aircraft. We have credible reports of them targeting Jewish-owned businesses here in the United Kingdom, and there are other reasons which we can’t disclose because of national security.
But they are a proscribed terrorist organisation and anyone showing support for that terrorist organisation will feel the full force of the law.
The home secretary, Yvette Cooper, proscribed Palestine Action last month under the Terrorism Act after activists caused an estimated £7m of damage to jets at the RAF Brize Norton military base in Oxfordshire.
It made membership of or support for it a criminal offence, punishable by up to 14 years in prison.
The government justifies the ban by saying it narrowly targets a group that has been organising serious criminality.
But critics say the ban is a draconian clampdown on freedom of expression and is the latest erosion of civil liberties that have been brought in under successive governments.
Palestine Action is appealing against the ban after a High Court ruling on 30 July gave it permission to do so. We will have more on Palestine Action shortly.
Here is what else is on the agenda for the rest of the day:
11am: Reform UK press conference.
11.30am: Lobby briefing with the prime minister’s spokesperson, who will likely be asked about the extent of the UK’s involvement in the Trump-Putin Ukraine summit in Alaska on Friday.
Late morning: Kemi Badenoch, the leader of the opposition, visits East Anglia to highlight local concerns about the use of asylum hotels.
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More countries added to UK’s ‘deport first’ scheme for foreign criminals
In other news, a hostile environment era deportation policy is being expanded by Labour as the government continues to try to limit the threat from Reform by talking and acting toughly on migration.
Foreign criminals from 15 more countries, including India, Bulgaria and Australia, face deportation before they have a chance to appeal against the decision to remove them, in a widening of the government’s “deport first, appeal later” scheme.
This brings the total affected countries to 23 (you can read the government’s press release here for a full list and our write up and analysis of the policy here).
The scheme, which was introduced by the Conservatives in 2014 and applies to England and Wales, allows the UK to deport offenders who have had a human rights claim against their removal rejected, with any appeals heard from abroad over a video link.
Previously, offenders from these countries could stay in the UK while their cases went through the appeals system, a process that could often take a long time.
Officials have said increasing deportations will help ease pressure on overcrowded prisons. But figures from the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) from the end of June suggest there are currently just 772 prisoners from the 15 new countries covered by “deport now, appeal later”.
The move comes after a separate announcement by the MoJ over the weekend that foreign criminals can now be deported as soon as they are sent to prison in a bid to combat the overcrowding crisis.
My colleagues Henry Dyer and Rob Evans exclusively revealed last week that Richard Dannatt, a former head of the British army and a member of the House of Lords, urged ministers to crack down on Palestine Action at the request of a US defence company that employs him as an adviser. Here is an extract from their story:
Richard Dannatt wrote privately to two separate Home Office ministers asking them to address the “threat” posed by the group after its activists targeted a factory in 2022.
The activists caused extensive damage to the factory which is run by Teledyne, a US multinational that sells technology for military, aerospace and other applications. Lord Dannatt has been a paid adviser to the company since 2022.
Dannatt’s involvement after the attack on the factory in Wales led to allegations heard later in court that the peer was “seeking to influence” the criminal investigation into the Palestine Action activists.
As we mentioned in the opening post, the Metropolitan police, a force under huge budgetary and resource pressure, arrested a total of 532 people on Saturday at the largest demonstration relating to Palestine Action since the group was proscribed last month.
Detained protesters were taken to prisoner processing points in the Westminster area.
Those whose details could be confirmed were released on bail to appear at a police station at a future date.
The Met said 522 people were held for displaying an item in support of a proscribed organisation, and there were a further 10 arrests, six for assaults on officers, two for breaching Public Order Act conditions, one arrest for obstructing a constable in the execution of their duty, and one for a racially aggravated public order offence.
Anyone showing support for Palestine Action 'will feel the full force of the law', justice minister says
Good morning and welcome to our live coverage of UK politics.
The government has defended its controversial proscription of protest group Palestine Action, with the justice minister, Alex Davies-Jones, saying supporters of a “terrorist organisation will feel the full force of the law”.
The comments come after a huge demonstration against the proscription took place in London over the weekend in which 532 people were arrested. The majority of those arrested, 348, were aged 50 or over, according to official figures.
Responding to questions about the protest this morning on BBC Breakfast, Davies-Jones said:
I want to thank the police for their bravery and their courage in carrying out their diligent duties in the line of public protection, and I want to state that the right to peacefully protest in this country is a cornerstone of our democracy, and of course, we respect that.
But with regards to Palestine Action, they are a proscribed terrorist organisation and their actions have not been peaceful.
They have violently carried out criminal damage to RAF aircraft. We have credible reports of them targeting Jewish-owned businesses here in the United Kingdom, and there are other reasons which we can’t disclose because of national security.
But they are a proscribed terrorist organisation and anyone showing support for that terrorist organisation will feel the full force of the law.
The home secretary, Yvette Cooper, proscribed Palestine Action last month under the Terrorism Act after activists caused an estimated £7m of damage to jets at the RAF Brize Norton military base in Oxfordshire.
It made membership of or support for it a criminal offence, punishable by up to 14 years in prison.
The government justifies the ban by saying it narrowly targets a group that has been organising serious criminality.
But critics say the ban is a draconian clampdown on freedom of expression and is the latest erosion of civil liberties that have been brought in under successive governments.
Palestine Action is appealing against the ban after a High Court ruling on 30 July gave it permission to do so. We will have more on Palestine Action shortly.
Here is what else is on the agenda for the rest of the day:
11am: Reform UK press conference.
11.30am: Lobby briefing with the prime minister’s spokesperson, who will likely be asked about the extent of the UK’s involvement in the Trump-Putin Ukraine summit in Alaska on Friday.
Late morning: Kemi Badenoch, the leader of the opposition, visits East Anglia to highlight local concerns about the use of asylum hotels.
