More than 50 detained at Palestine Action protest outside Labour conference in Liverpool

More than 50 people were arrested on Sunday after demonstrating outside the Labour Party's annual conference in Liverpool in support of Palestine Action, the organisation proscribed as a terrorist group in July 2025. Merseyside Police said officers were still making arrests at the Defend Our Juries-organised event, with demonstrators detained on suspicion of wearing or carrying an article supporting a proscribed organisation.

The protest began with more than 250 campaigners sitting down outside the conference centre, many of them holding home-made banners reading "I support Palestine Action". The display of visible support for a banned group is the specific conduct police said they were policing, having warned demonstrators that holding such signs amounts to supporting a proscribed organisation.

Officers initially stood by, watching the gathering, before moving in to begin detaining people. According to the BBC's report, officers asked demonstrators whether they intended to continue displaying their banners and, when they declined to comply, led some of them away, telling them they were being arrested under the Terrorism Act.

A Merseyside Police spokesperson said the force respected everyone's right to protest lawfully while also working to keep the peace and protect public safety. The force said it made "detailed and co-ordinated plans ahead of such events to ensure it can apply this consistently, fairly and proportionately". Importantly, the spokesperson stressed that not everyone present at the protest was committing a criminal offence — a distinction drawn as the scale of the operation came under scrutiny.

Among those taken away was human rights barrister Margaret Owen, aged 94, whose detention drew particular attention. Demonstrators gathered on the pavement cheered and celebrated each time a protester was carried away by officers, treating the arrests as a point of pride rather than a defeat. The scene of an elderly barrister being escorted by police outside a party conference has become a recurring image of the proscription debate, and it is likely to intensify pressure on a government that only months ago insisted the ban had nothing to do with peaceful protest.

Amnesty International condemned the arrests. Kerry Moscogiuri, chief executive of Amnesty International UK, said: "Protesting is one of the most effective tools we have to make our leaders listen to us, but we have seen consecutive governments crack down on our right to do it." He added: "The arrests of grandparents, teenagers and everyone in between for holding placards outside the Labour Party conference are a truly shameful attack on freedom of speech." Moscogiuri then pointed directly at the new prime minister, Andy Burnham, saying he can reform the laws so communities are able to come together and demonstrate on the issues they care about — and challenged him to do so.

Defend Our Juries, the group that organised the demonstration, used the occasion to call on Burnham to scrap the ban entirely. A spokesperson said the organisers had hoped the new prime minister would "do the sensible thing and bin the ban on Palestine Action", given both "the weight of public pressure to do so and the escalating amount of resources required in enforcing it". The statement added: "Continuing the charade of the proscription of Palestine Action is illogical, unsustainable and immoral."

The arrests land at a pivotal moment in the group's legal battle. In July, it was confirmed that Palestine Action's proscription would be reviewed by the Supreme Court, with the court granting the group's co-founder permission to appeal the ban, which came into force in July 2025. Shortly afterwards, Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said the government would "robustly defend" that appeal.

The Home Office has repeatedly maintained that the proscription of Palestine Action is not about protest in support of Palestinian causes, and has insisted it was necessary because the group was causing significant criminal damage to legitimate businesses. Both the High Court and the Court of Appeal have found that the organisation's activities included criminal acts, though the judges were divided over whether those incidents justified the use of terrorism legislation.

That division is precisely the question the Supreme Court will now consider: whether the proscription of an organisation linked to disruptive direct action against defence industry targets can be sustained under a framework normally reserved for groups posing a serious threat to national security. The Liverpool arrests, coming during a major party gathering attended by ministers and MPs, provide a pointed illustration of how the ban operates in practice — at a time when ministers and party members are arriving and departing the same city for a week of political activity.

Civil liberties groups have long warned that a ban on a group, combined with enforcement against people merely displaying support for it, risks a chilling effect on protest far beyond the organisation named. Campaigners argue that if wearing a T-shirt or holding a sign can lead to detention under the Terrorism Act, the boundary between lawful expression and criminal conduct becomes difficult for ordinary people to locate. Police, for their part, continue to insist that they target only those who actively display support, and that lawful protest of all kinds remains permitted in Liverpool.

Defend Our Juries has previously organised demonstrations over the ban, including a gathering outside Westminster Magistrates' Court in July, where protesters again called for the proscription to be lifted. Similar campaigns have featured outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London, where groups have assembled with Palestinian flags to mark legal hearings.

Merseyside Police said officers remained at the scene as the arrests continued, and BBC News has asked the Ministry of Justice to comment. The outcome of the Supreme Court appeal, and the government's decision on whether to press ahead with the defence of the ban, are likely to determine whether the arrests seen in Liverpool become a one-off or a regular feature of political gatherings.

For now, the organisers say the response to Sunday's protest only strengthens their case. If holding a hand-painted banner at a party conference is enough to be detained under terrorism laws, they argue, the ban is doing far more to criminalise speech than to protect the public — and they will keep pressing the new prime minister to undo it.