UK Politics

Tim Sigsworth 19 January 2026 2:48pm GMT

The White House has told Britain to stop arresting people who express support for Palestine Action.

Sarah Rogers, Donald Trump’s free speech tsar, said the arrests were “censoring” free speech and did “more harm than good”.

More than 2,000 people have been arrested for expressing support for Palestine Action since it was proscribed as a terror group in July last year.

Ms Rogers, the US state department’s under-secretary for public diplomacy, said that the public should be allowed to say they back the group.

“I would have to look at each individual person and each proscribed organisation,” she told Semafor. “I think if you support an organisation like Hamas, then depending upon whether you’re coordinating, there are all these standards that get applied.

“This Palestine Action group, I’ve seen it written about. I don’t know what it did. I think if you just merely stand up and say, ‘I support Palestine Action’, then unless you are really co-ordinating with some violent foreign terrorist, I think that censoring that speech does more harm than good.”

Palestine Action was proscribed in July 2025 after its activists broke into RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire and vandalised military aeroplanes.

In a campaign of vandalism and trespass protesting the war in Gaza, it has targeted businesses that it claims are linked to Israel.

Anyone who expresses support for the group – which is often done on a piece of paper – faces arrest and a maximum prison sentence of six months.

Ms Rogers has been an outspoken critic of Sir Keir Starmer’s Government and freedom of speech in Britain since taking her position in October last year.

She has criticised the Prime Minister for cancelling local elections, curbing rights to jury trials and not banning cousin marriage.

Ms Rogers also compared Britain under Labour to Vladimir Putin’s Russia after the Government threatened to ban Elon Musk’s X over the creation of naked images of women and children by its AI service, Grok.

She also said British police forces were wrong to arrest people for using the phrase “globalise the intifada”.

The Metropolitan Police and Greater Manchester Police (GMP) said last month that anyone chanting the slogan would face arrest in a more robust approach to pro-Palestinian protesters following the Bondi Beach and Manchester synagogue terror attacks.

“I’m from New York City where thousands of people were murdered by jihadists,” Ms Rogers said, referring to the 9/11 terror attack. “I don’t want an intifada in New York City, and I think anyone who does is disgusting, but should it be legal to say in most contexts? Yes.”

In December, Greta Thunberg, the Swedish climate activist, was arrested in London for expressing support for Palestine Action. She was later bailed until March.

The group is in the midst of a legal challenge against its proscription and critics of the ban have argued the group is not comparable to violent terror groups such as Al-Qaeda or the Irish Republican Army (IRA).

Proscription ‘is draconian’

Amnesty International, the charity, has said the group’s proscription is an example of “problematic, overly broad and draconian restrictions on free speech”.

A number of the group’s activists embarked upon a hunger strike while being in prison on remand as they awaited trial.

Scottish prosecutors have offered to drop charges against some supporters of Palestine Action if they accept a £100 fine.

Adam McGibbon, who refused the offer, said: “The fact that the authorities are offering fines equivalent to a parking ticket for a ‘terrorism offence’ shows just how ridiculous these charges are. Do supporters of Islamic State get the same deal?

“I refuse to pay this fine, as has everyone else I know who has been offered one. Just try and put all 3,000 of us who have defied this ban so far in jail, Shabana Mahmood. Have you got the space?”

Mr McGibbon was among those arrested at a mass rally on Edinburgh’s Royal Mile in July 2025.

Lord Walney, co-chairman of the all-party parliamentary group for defending democracy, said: “It is unfortunate that Sarah Rogers says she is unaware of the history of violence and organised sabotage that led the UK Government to proscribe Palestine Action as a terrorist organisation.

“The president has spoken out in strong terms against far-Left violence and intimidation in the US and it is obvious he would in no way support these extremists damaging RAF jets, smashing up defence factories and attacking security staff with sledge hammers here in the UK.”

A spokesman for the Home Office said: “Palestine Action has conducted an escalating campaign involving not just sustained criminal damage, including to Britain’s national security infrastructure, but also intimidation and alleged violence and serious injuries to individuals. That kind of activity puts the safety and security of the public at risk.”