Labour backlash at plan to ban Palestine Action after vandalism of RAF planes – amid outrage at protest in Westminster right now
Yvette Cooper is facing a Labour backlash at plans to ban Palestine Action in the wake of RAF planes being vandalised.
The Home Secretary is due to update MPs later on proposals to make it a criminal offence to belong to or support the group.
But Labour politicians have criticised the step as too far – while police have voiced concerns about a protest against the move due in Westminster later.
Ms Cooper is acting after Palestine Action posted footage online showing two people inside the base at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire.
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.
The incident is being investigated by counter-terror police.
The Home Secretary has the power to proscribe an organisation under the Terrorism Act of 2000 if she believes it is ‘concerned in terrorism’.
Proscription will require Ms Cooper to lay an order in Parliament, which must then be debated and approved by both MPs and peers.
Palestine Action posted footage online showing two people inside the base at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire
Yvette Cooper is facing a Labour backlash at plans to ban Palestine Action in the wake of RAF planes being vandalised
Some 81 organisations have been proscribed under the 2000 Act, including Islamist terrorist groups such as Hamas and al Qaida, far-right groups such as National Action, and Russian private military company the Wagner Group.
Belonging to or expressing support for a proscribed organisation, along with a number of other actions, are criminal offences carrying a maximum sentence of 14 years in prison.
Former shadow attorney general Baroness Shami Chakrabarti has suggested the definition of terrorism was being set too broadly.
She told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: ‘They certainly committed acts of criminal trespass and criminal damage, painting planes at Brize Norton and so on, but I think that’s not what most people would understand as terrorism, and to proscribe Palestine Action on the information that we have all seen, I think would be a new departure.
‘It is one thing to be a threat to property, to be a nuisance, to be prosecuted, and in some cases even imprisoned for those criminal offences, but it’s another thing altogether to proscribe a whole group, and that means anybody fairly vaguely associated with it, to ban them (as) terrorists.’
However, Lady Chakrabarti stressed she did not have access to secret intelligence on the group.
Former justice secretary Lord Charlie Falconer said yesterday that vandalising aircraft at RAF Brize Norton would not alone provide legal justification for proscribing the group.
Asked whether the group’s actions were commensurate with proscription, Lord Falconer told Sky News’s Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips: ‘I am not aware of what Palestine Action has done beyond the painting of things on the planes in Brize Norton, they may have done other things I didn’t know.
‘But generally, that sort of demonstration wouldn’t justify proscription so there must be something else that I don’t know about.’
Former Scottish first minister Humza Yousaf said the Government was ‘abusing’ anti-terror laws against pro-Palestine activists.
In a statement yesterday, Met Police commissioner Mark Rowley condemned the planned protest in Westminster.
‘I’m sure many people will be as shocked and frustrated as I am to see a protest taking place tomorrow in support of Palestine Action,’ he said.
‘This is an organised extremist criminal group, whose proscription as terrorists is being actively considered.
‘Members are alleged to have caused millions of pounds of criminal damage, assaulted a police officer with a sledgehammer and last week claimed responsibility for breaking into an airbase and damaging aircraft. Multiple members of the group are awaiting trial accused of serious offences.
‘The right to protest is essential and we will always defend it, but actions in support of such a group go beyond what most would see as legitimate protest.
‘Thousands of people attend protests of a different character every week without clashing with the law or with the police. The criminal charges faced by Palestine Action members, in contrast, represent a form of extremism that I believe the overwhelming majority of the public rejects.
‘We have laid out to Government the operational basis on which to consider proscribing this group. If that happens we will be determined to target those who continue to act in its name and those who show support for it.
‘Until then we have no power in law to prevent tomorrow’s protest taking place. We do, however, have the power to impose conditions on it to prevent disorder, damage, and serious disruption to the community, including to Parliament, to elected representatives moving around Westminster and to ordinary Londoners.
In a statement yesterday, Met Police commissioner Mark Rowley condemned the planned protest in Westminster
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
‘Breaches of the law will be dealt with robustly.’
A spokesman for Palestine Action previously accused the UK of failing to meet its obligation to prevent or punish genocide.
The spokesperson said: ‘When our Government fails to uphold their moral and legal obligations, it is the responsibility of ordinary citizens to take direct action. The terrorists are the ones committing a genocide, not those who break the tools used to commit it.’
