Yvette Cooper defends Palestine Action ban after court rules it was unlawful

Yvette Cooper has defended her decision to ban Palestine Action as a terror group, after the High Court ruled the move was unlawful and “disproportionate”.

Ms Cooper, now the Foreign Secretary, proscribed the group in July last year when she was serving as home secretary.

On Friday, the High Court ruled against the Government’s ban after a challenge was brought by Palestine Action.

The judgment could have implications for thousands of people arrested for supporting the group at protests across the country.

The ban remains in place for now and Ms Cooper’s successor as Home Secretary, Shabana Mahmood, has said she will appeal against the court’s decision.

Proscription makes it a criminal offence to belong to or support Palestine Action, punishable by up to 14 years in prison.

Asked on the Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips programme on Sky News to explain her decision-making, Ms Cooper said: “I followed the clear advice and recommendations, going through a serious process that the Home Office goes through, involving different agencies and police advice as well, which was very clear about the recommendation for proscription of this group.

“And the court has also concluded that this is not a normal protest group, that it has found that this group has committed acts of terrorism, that this group is not simply in line with democratic values, and has promoted violence.”

Ms Cooper was pressed to reveal the advice she was given that informed her decision to pursue the ban, but did not.

Instead, she said: “So I was given significant evidence and advice around risks of violence and risks from public safety, and that is what you take seriously.”

The Foreign Secretary added: “If you ignore advice that you are given about risks to public safety then you’re really not taking seriously the responsibilities of home secretary.”

Palestine Action has undertaken 385 direct actions in protest at the situation in Palestine and the actions of the Israeli government since 2020, according to police.

The High Court said a “very small number” of those actions amounted to terrorism.

Palestine Action’s co-founder Huda Ammori took legal action against the Home Office over Ms Cooper’s decision last year to proscribe the group under the Terrorism Act 2000.

The decision was announced in the wake of the group claiming responsibility for causing an estimated £7 million of damage to military tanker planes at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire.

In a 46-page ruling on Friday, Dame Victoria Sharp, sitting with Mr Justice Swift and Mrs Justice Steyn, said: “We are satisfied that the decision to proscribe Palestine Action was disproportionate.

“At its core, Palestine Action is an organisation that promotes its political cause through criminality and encouragement of criminality. A very small number of its actions have amounted to terrorist action.”

Shadow foreign secretary Dame Priti Patel said she was “appalled” by the High Court ruling.

She told Sky News it was “right that it should be appealed”, adding: “I think the public would be absolutely horrified to see that these individuals have been able to essentially get away with the type of activity that they have been able to thus far.”

Meanwhile, a group of 26 Labour MPs and peers, including Blair-era former minister Lord Peter Hain and senior MP John McDonnell, has written to the Government urging it not to go ahead with its plans for appeal.