Palestine Action protesters arrested outside UK Labour Party conference

Police in Merseyside said they arrested over 50 demonstrators who were protesting in support of Palestine Action outside the annual Labour Party conference in Liverpool. Officers told the gathered protesters they were being detained under the Terrorism Act after displaying material backing the group, which the government proscribed as a terrorist organisation in July 2025. Organisers, identified by police as Defend Our Juries, had around 250 people sitting outside the conference venue carrying banners and signs supportive of Palestine Action before law enforcement began making arrests. Reporting from the scene, an Al Jazeera correspondent quoted protesters who said they aimed to place the proscription at the centre of the new prime minister Andy Burnham’s conference agenda and framed their detentions as an exercise in free speech. Among those taken into custody was Massive Attack singer Robert Del Naja. Officers said they sought to balance protecting the public and upholding the right to lawful protest while enforcing the ban; police published a statement saying they respected lawful protest but would act to keep the peace and public safe. The demonstration follows a broader civil disobedience campaign since the ban, with activists claiming more than 3,600 arrests over support for Palestine Action, frequently while holding placards reading phrases such as “I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action.” Amnesty International UK’s chief executive, Kerry Moscogiuri, described the arrests as an attack on freedom of speech and urged legal reform. Separately, activists also confronted Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband inside a Liverpool restaurant to demand the ban be lifted and for him to declare Israel’s actions in Gaza a genocide, according to local reporting. The legal challenge to the proscription continues: London’s Court of Appeal upheld the government ban in June and the UK Supreme Court is now due to hear the case, leaving the dispute between protesters, campaign groups, and the state on a path to be determined by the judiciary.