Police ban Palestine Action protest from Westminster
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper is expected to announce the plans in a ministerial statement on Monday, which would effectively treat Palestine Action as a terrorist group and would make it illegal for people to join or express support.
It comes after the group posted footage online showing two people inside the base at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire.
READ MORE: Scotland could be 'complicit in war crimes' by allowing US to use Prestwick Airport
The clip shows one person riding an electric scooter up to an Airbus Voyager air-to-air refuelling tanker and appearing to spray paint into its jet engine.
Reports of plans to proscribe the group have received widespread criticism, with Scottish Greens co-leader Patrick Harvie branding it "deeply authoritarian", while former first minister Humza Yousaf said: "If the UK Government believes those protesting against the atrocities in Gaza are terrorists, but those killing children should be supported and provided with weapons, then this Government has not only lost its way, it has lost its conscience."
Former first minster Humza Yousaf speaking after a march organised by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign in London on Saturday (Image: Jeff Moore) The SNP have also opposed the move, telling The National: "It is absolutely vital that legitimate expressions of support for Palestine and the Palestinian people are not criminalised.'
An emergency protest was organised in London on Monday in response to the reports, backed by more than 30 groups including Campaign Against Arms Trade and Stop The War Coalition.
Yet while the protest was initially meant to take place outside the UK Parliament from 12pm, Palestine Action said the location had been changed to Trafalgar Square after claiming the Metropolitan Police had "banned" it from taking place outside Westminster.
The Metropolitan police are trying to deter support from Palestine Action, by banning the protest from taking place at the Houses of Parliament.
Don't let them win!
Make sure everyone is aware of the location change to Trafalgar Square, London. Mobilise from 12PM. pic.twitter.com/IbOURi2Oma — Palestine Action (@Pal_action) June 23, 2025
On Sunday, Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley released a statement saying he was "shocked and frustrated" by the planned demonstration.
READ MORE: Richard McNeil-Willson: Proscription of Palestine Action has frightening implications
Branding Palestine Action an "organised extremist criminal group", he said that the Met Police had "no power in law" to prevent the protest from taking place until the group is proscribed.
Responding to the statement, Palestine Action wrote on Twitter/X: "The British state want to proscribe Palestine Action and simultaneously ban people from protesting it in support of us at Parliament where the decision is ultimately made?
"And they call us undemocratic and extreme?"
The Met Police have been contacted for comment.
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