Palestine Action banned from protesting outside parliament
Palestine Action has been banned from protesting outside Parliament.
It comes after Sir Mark Rowley, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, said he was 'shocked and frustrated' that the group was planning the demonstration.
The force has now imposed an exclusion zone around Parliament, with protesters facing arrest if they enter the area.
Police have also said any demonstrations by the group in central London cannot begin before 12pm and must end by 3pm.
Yvette Cooper, the Home Secretary, is expected to announce plans on Monday to proscribe Palestine Action after activists from the group damaged two planes at RAF Brize Norton, at a potential cost of millions of pounds.
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Powys County Times
23 minutes ago
- Powys County Times
Banning Palestine Action may be ‘escalation too far', says Labour peer
Plans to ban protest group Palestine Action would mark a very serious step that may go too far, a former shadow attorney general has said. Baroness Shami Chakrabarti told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that it is 'one thing' to be a threat to property, or to be a nuisance, but it is 'another thing altogether' for a whole group to be proscribed as terrorists. She said: 'From what I can tell, this is a militant protest group that engages in direct action and that includes criminality, no question, but to elevate that to terrorism so anybody who attends a meeting, or who promotes the organisation, or is loosely affiliated with it, is branded a terrorist – that is a serious escalation I think.' The former director of the Liberty human rights group added: 'No doubt the Home Secretary will come to Parliament today and she will explain her reasoning and announce what she is actually going to do. 'I think this is a very serious step and I would share the concerns of Amnesty International, of Liberty, my former group, and others that this may be an escalation too far.' The Labour peer's concerns come as Home Secretary Yvette Cooper will update Parliament on Monday on the Government's plan to ban Palestine Action following the group's vandalism of two planes at an RAF base. The group posted footage online showing two people inside the base at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire on Friday morning. 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. Meanwhile, a protest in support of Palestine Action is due to take place in London on Monday. The group posted on X that the protest location has moved to Trafalgar Square after the Metropolitan Police banned action from taking place at the Houses of Parliament. It comes as Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley said he was 'shocked and frustrated' at the protest supporting the 'organised extremist criminal group' as the force imposed an exclusion zone around Westminster. He said that until the group is proscribed, the Met has 'no power in law' to prevent the protest taking place, adding that breaches of the law would be 'dealt with robustly'. In a statement on Sunday, Sir Mark said: '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. The act of vandalism committed at RAF Brize Norton is disgraceful. Our Armed Forces represent the very best of Britain and put their lives on the line for us every day. It is our responsibility to support those who defend us. — Keir Starmer (@Keir_Starmer) June 20, 2025 '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. '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.' A spokesperson 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.' Cabinet minister Jonathan Reynolds said he could not rule out the possibility of a foreign power being behind Palestine Action. The Business and Trade Secretary told the BBC's Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg: 'It is extremely concerning they gained access to that base and the Defence Secretary is doing an immediate review of how that happened. 'The actions that they undertook at Brize Norton were also completely unacceptable and it's not the first. It's the fourth attack by that group on a key piece of UK defence infrastructure.' 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. 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. On Sunday, former justice secretary Lord Charlie Falconer said vandalising aircraft at RAF Brize Norton would not solely provide legal justification for proscribing the group. He 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.' But former Scottish first minister Humza Yousaf said the Government was 'abusing' anti-terror laws against pro-Palestine activists, as tens of thousands of protesters marched in London on Saturday. 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. The Campaign Against Antisemitism welcomed the news that Ms Cooper intended to proscribe Palestine Action, saying: 'Nobody should be surprised that those who vandalised Jewish premises with impunity have now been emboldened to sabotage RAF jets.' Former home secretary Suella Braverman also said it was 'absolutely the correct decision'.
Reuters
25 minutes ago
- Reuters
Greenpeace joins protests against gala Bezos wedding in Venice
VENICE, Italy, June 23 (Reuters) - Global environmental lobby Greenpeace added its voice on Monday to protests against this week's celebrity wedding in Venice between American tech billionaire Jeff Bezos and journalist Laura Sanchez. The event, expected to attract some 200 guests including U.S. President Donald Trump's daughter Ivanka and son-in-law Jared Kushner, as well as scores of stars from film, fashion and business, has been dubbed "the wedding of the century". But some locals see the celebration as the latest sign of the brash commodification of a beautiful but fragile city that has long been overrun with tourism while steadily depopulating. Activists from Greenpeace Italy and UK group "Everyone hates Elon" (Musk) unfolded a giant banner in central St Mark's Square with a picture of Bezos laughing and a sign reading: "If you can rent Venice for your wedding you can pay more tax." Local police arrived to talk to activists and check their identification documents, before they rolled up their banner. "The problem is not the wedding, the problem is the system. We think that one big billionaire can't rent a city for his pleasure," Simona Abbate, one of the protesters, told Reuters. Mayor Luigi Brugnaro and regional governor Luca Zaia have defended the wedding, arguing that it will bring an economic windfall to local businesses, including the motor boats and gondolas that operate its myriad canals. Zaia said the celebrations were expected to cost 20-30 million euros ($23-$34 million). Bezos will also make sizable charity donations, including a million euros for Corila, an academic consortium that studies Venice's lagoon ecosystem, Italy's Corriere della Sera newspaper and the ANSA news agency reported on Sunday. Earlier this month, anti-Bezos banners were hung from St Mark's bell tower and from the famed Rialto bridge, while locals threatened peaceful blockades against the event, saying Venice needed public services and housing, not VIPs and over-tourism. The exact dates and locations of the glitzy nuptials are being kept confidential, but celebrations are expected to play out over three days, most likely around June 26-28. ($1 = 0.8722 euros)
Daily Mail
28 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
MP Natalie Fleet who fell pregnant at 15 after being groomed by an older man reveals the moment she realised she had been abused 25 years later
Labour MP Natalie Fleet has opened up about how she was groomed by an older man as a teenager, before giving birth aged just 15. The politician, who represents Bolsove in Derbyshire , revealed last year that she was a victim of 'statutory rape' after being 'groomed' by a much older man who lived in her area. Speaking to the Guardian, Fleet, who is now 41, revealed she only started to see her 'teenage relationship' as grooming and the 'sex' as statutory rape after she entered parliament last year. The politician first opened up about the experience in an interview with GB News, just weeks after winning her seat in last year's general election. She has spoken about her experience on a number of occasions since, and has used her platform to campaign for the strengthening of legal protections of children who are born by rape. In a new interview with The Guardian, Fleet has shared further detail about the harrowing event, and now realises how it 'was just lies to have sex with a teenage girl'. She described how she, a young girl weathering a multitude of storms, found herself looking for love in an older man who lived a few streets away. 'He told me he loved me and that I was amazing and I believed him,' said the MP, who has chosen not to name the father of her daughter, who is now 24. 'I thought we were in a loving relationship that would go long-term. I didn't know it was just lies to have sex with a teenage girl.' After a three-month relationship with the man, Fleet became pregnant with her daughter, whom she now calls the 'love of my life'. What had felt like a long time when she was a 'young and vulnerable' teenager, she now realises was 'not long at all'. When she told her much older boyfriend about the pregnancy, he immediately told her to terminate it and threatened to deny paternity if she went through with it - a reaction that left her crushed. She asked him how she'd managed to conceive if he'd been using protection, to which he 'mumbled' that he believed she'd been on contraception, despite never having asked. While she knew about the risks of pregnancy and contracting STIs, she'd been 'too embarrassed' to ask about protection, believing her partner to 'know what he was doing'. Admitting the pregnancy to her family was far worse, and described telling her mother as 'absolutely horrendous'. Her grandfather, a miner from Nottinghamshire who played a big part in her upbringing, screamed so loudly it 'didn't sound like a human'. He later came round and is now an incredibly doting grandfather and has regularly helped with childcare over the years. During the early days of her pregnancy, Fleet was left racked with shame - partly due to the unreservedly negative reactions from her teachers, relatives and peers - with little to no blame attributed to her boyfriend. Despite being under the care of a consultant, GP and midwife, no one enquired about the circumstances of her pregnancy, which she now believes was the result of 'statutory rape'. She credits the help of a government initiative, Sure Start, designed to support families in disadvantaged areas, with helping her to get her GCSEs while also being a full-time mother. Three months after the birth of her daughter, Fleet met her husband, who was three years above her at the same school. Now a heating engineer, it was only when Fleet first began opening up in interviews about having been groomed as child that people realised her husband wasn't the biological father of her daughter. She now views him as having 'chosen' to be the father of her first daughter. With the help of Sure Start, Fleet was able to go to college and get her A-levels before getting a history and politics degree from the University of Nottingham. By this point, she had given birth to her second child, a son, but found relating to her fellow students nearly impossible since their experiences of being able to 'roll out of bed' for a lecture was so far away from her own. She struggled so much that she ended up dropping out of university, a decision she described as 'horrendous'. 'That's when I thought everything people had said was true. I'd ruined my life. It took me a long time to rebuild,' she said. From there on, she had two more children, volunteered at a Citizens Advice bureau and joined the Labour party, later getting a job at the National Education Union, where she worked for three years right up until entering parliament. Only when she started work as an MP did she begin to think about the past, and came to realise that what she'd experienced as a teenager was in fact 'statutory rape'. When she spoke to her daughter, she was 'gobsmacked' that it her taken so long to cotton on to the cruel reality of her circumstances. Since opening up about her past, Fleet has been in contact with many other women who have found themselves in similar situations - saying they've approached her in the street and have sent her letters. She told the publication that her 'dream' was that women across the country will be able to come forward knowing they'll have 'an MP who believes them'. Fleet also campaigns for the implementation of legal protections for children who are born as a result of rape. 'People don't believe me when I share that there is nothing stopping perpetrators having access to children conceived via rape,' she wrote in Glamour. 'They are horrified that a rapist can have legal rights over another human because of the crime they committed. A child conceived via rape cannot be the only proceed of crime that a convicted criminal has lifelong access to.' She is currently fighting in government to protect women, who's babies are born by rape, their perpetrators still holding legal access to visit them through what she called a 'legal loophole'. Fleet said more must be done to protect from the 'injustice' that keeps 'women silent for fear of further harm'. Speaking to GB News last year, she said she wanted to use her platform to talk more about women in her situation 'and do something about it'. She said: 'I really want to be a voice for all of those people, all of those women that have children in far from ideal circumstances.' Adding that her childhood experiences still had a 'massive impact' on her, including 'weekly nightmares', she said she was still 'so excited about what the next Labour Government is going to do'. She said: 'We're going to make sure that we're smashing down barriers to opportunity so that there can be more stories like mine. 'I am a product of the last Labour government. It wasn't a perfect government, but it changed my life and it was transformational. 'And that's the reason that it's worth doing a job where you can't go to the shop in your pyjamas anymore, but where you still have a panic alarm in your bag, your own children are potentially at risk, that's really awful. 'But when it means that you can make other children's lives, who aren't as fortunate, better, that's incredible.' The politician recently became a grandparent, her first daughter having had a daughter of her own. Fleet's husband has already committed to taking an active role in being a grandparent, having gone part-time so he is able to provide childcare .
