House of Lords debate on Palestine Action, 3rd July 2025

JVL Introduction

The government’s motion was to proscribe three organisations, Maniacs Murder Cult, Palestine Action and the Russian Imperial Movement. In the words of its mover Lord Hanson of Flint, The Minister of State, Home Office, it was to “reaffirm the UK’s zero-tolerance approach to terrorism, regardless of its form or underlying ideology”.

A valiant attempt was made in the House of Lords, in what was sometimes an ill-tempered debate, to express “regret” at this action on several grounds: that it undermines civil liberties, is a misuse of terrorism legislation, suppresses dissent on Israel and criminalises support for a protest group.

Despite powerful arguments, the vote for the amendment was a woeful 16 for as opposed to 144 against.

What follows are selective extracts from this debate, highlighting points we think were most powerful or relevant. The italic emphasis in these extracts is ours.

You can read the full debate here.

RK

This article was originally published by Hansard on Thu 3 Jul 2025. Read the original here.