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Cooper defends decision to proscribe Palestine Action despite ban being ruled unlawful
Now to some UK news … In a significant blow to the Home Office, the High Court ruled last week that the ban of Palestine Action under terrorism legislation was unlawful and “disproportionate”, with most of their activities having not reached the level, scale and persistence to be defined as terrorism.
The high court said the then home secretary Yvette Cooper had not followed her own policies when bringing in the controversial ban last summer.
When asked about her decision making, Cooper told Sky News:
Well, 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.
Cooper was pressed to reveal the advice she was given that informed her decision to pursue the ban, but did not, instead saying: “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.”
Key events
Closing summary
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The foreign secretary, Yvette Cooper, defended her controversial decision to ban Palestine Action as a terror group, days after the high court ruled the move was unlawful and “disproportionate”.
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Cooper, who was home secretary at the time of proscription, was pressed to reveal the advice she was given that informed her decision to pursue the ban, but did not. The home secretary, Shabana Mahmood, has said she intends to appeal against the ban, something the shadow foreign secretary, Priti Patel, indicated she supported.
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A group of 26 Labour MPs and peers has written to the government urging it not to go ahead with its plans for appeal.
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Yvette Cooper said the UK helped expose the Kremlin’s “barbaric plot” to silence the late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny’s voice after a multi-intelligence agency inquiry found he was killed using a poison developed from a dart frog toxin administered by the Russian state two years ago.
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Cooper also said there were “significant process failures” surrounding the appointment of Keir Starmer’s former spin doctor Matthew Doyle to the House of Lords and expressed anger at the appointment of Peter Mandelson as the UK’s ambassador in Washington in December 2024.
Thanks for joining us. We are closing this blog now. You can find all our latest coverage of UK politics here.
Green party leader commits to Nato’s Article 5 principle
Keir Starmer took to the international stage at the Munich Security Conference over the weekend to suggest that Labour’s populist rivals, Reform UK and the Greens, were “soft on Russia and weak on Nato”.
The Green party leader Zack Polanski is seen as a threat to Labour’s left and has caused a surge in party membership since being elected in Septmber 2025.
In an interview with Sky News earlier, Polanski said he would commit to Nato’s Article 5 – an attack on one member is considered an attack against all.
“If we’re in Nato as we are, then it’s clear that we need to sign up to the articles. And Article 5 says an attack on one is an attack on all,” Polanski said after stressing that he takes national security “seriously”.
Polanski also said:
The very obvious thing to point out is that Donald Trump, our so-called ally who is behving increasingly dangerously and unpredicatbly is threatening to annnex Greenland. And an attack on one is an attack on all.
And it just feels Keir Starmer’s speech yesterday which by the way is not 100 miles away from what I have been saying for months now, which is that we need a closer relationship with Europe.
So it is quite bizarre to hear him repeating a lot of the things I have been saying and making an attack on me at the same time.
Asked where the “very small pockets” of aboslute poverty that he referenced can be found, Zia Yusuf pointed to “Wales”. He said:
15-year-old children in Wales score in the global PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) rankings – the most recognised international educational rankings – below the OECD average.
Meaningfully below, for example, countries like Turkey to which the British taxpayer, inclduing Welsh taxpayers, are sending tens of millions of pounds in foreign aid every year.
Yusuf seems to be referencing the latest PISA test scores, taken in 2022, which showed Wales’ performance slumped to its lowest level ever in maths, reading and science tests taken by 15-year-olds, below those seen across the rest of the UK. The results were a marker of the devastating effect the pandemic was thought to have had on many children’s education.
According to a report on poverty in the UK published by the House of Commons library last year, the proportion of people in relative low income before housing costs was highest in Yorkshire and the Humber and the West Midlands (21%) over the three-year period between 2021/22 to 2023/24. The north-west and Wales followed with 19%.
More than a fifith of people in Wales (22%) live in poverty, totalling 700,000 individuals, according to the Joseph Rowntree Foundation. This includes 400,000 working-age adults, 200,000 children and 100,000 pensioners living in poverty in 2021–24.
Absolute poverty exists in ‘very, very small pockets’ across the country, Reform’s head of policy says
In an interview with Sky News this morning, Zia Yusuf, Reform UK’s head of policy, said “poverty” is often used by “left-wing politicians” as a “relative” term, which he claims means “you could increase everybody’s incomes ten-fold and that statistic would stay the same”.
Asked by Trevor Phillips if the metrics of poverty measured by reputable organisations like the ONS are “illusions”, he said:
It’s worse than that. Because real poverty does exist in this country Trevor. And asbolute poverty does exist in very, very small pockets.
If you actually want to do the right thing for as many people as possible in this country then you need to create social mobility. That has been crushed by the Tory government and now this Labour government.
If you take the relative poverty argument then there will always be a percentage of the population that is in poverty and what that does nothing for is to help the middle classes or the people who are actually living in absolute poverty.
In the UK, poverty is more often defined as relative poverty rather than absolute poverty. The Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) makes the distinction between the two terms here:
Poverty is often measured in relative terms, comparing incomes to typical living standards in a country, or in absolute terms, based on whether incomes of poorer households are growing faster than inflation.
Broadly speaking, relative measures fall if people with lower incomes see their household income rise by more than people with average incomes, while absolute measures fall if people with lower incomes see their household income rise by more than inflation.
According to recent analysis by the JRF, the UK’s poorest families are getting poorer, with record numbers of people classed as in “very deep poverty” – meaning their annual household incomes fail to cover the cost of food, energy bills and clothing.
Patel says UK should ‘cut off the head of the snake’ by targeting Russia’s financial lifelines
Speaking to the BBC about Russia, Priti Patel said the government must look at the financial lifelines that Moscow has and “cut off the head of the snake” amid reports Russia has found ways of circumventing western-imposed sanctions brought in response to the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Speaking from Munich, the shadow foreign secretary said:
We have got to look at cutting off all the financial flows that are basically still propping up Russia and the Russian economy.
And I say that because that is what is giving them the licence to operate in this way. Russia is part of the axis of authoritarianism, along with China, Iran, North Korea.
So we have got to look at the financial lifelines and really get to the top, cut off the head of the snake as I have been saying here in Munich at this security conference.
We know there are oil refineries around the world, white labelling Russian oil. We have got to target those businesses and go after them.
The EU has imposed 19 rounds of sanctions on Russia since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, targeting more than 2,700 individuals and entities, and halting trade across vast economic areas including energy, aviation, IT, luxury and consumer goods, diamonds and gold, as my colleagues note in this story.
While sanctions have had an impact on Russia’s economy, which has started to stagnate, Moscow has found ways to evade western sanctions through opaque trading schemes as well as its “shadow fleet” network.
Conservatives support government’s intention to appeal against Palestine Action high court ruling
Shadow foreign secretary, Priti Patel, said she was “appalled” by the high court’s ruling on Friday that the proscription of Palestine Action was unlawful and supports the government’s intention to appeal against the decision (see post at 09.35 for more details).
Speaking to Sky News this morning, Patel, a former home secretary between July 2019 and Septmeber 2022, said:
I’m pretty appalled by that ruling, and clearly it’s now going to be subject to a legal appeal. And I think it’s right that it should be appealed …
It is right that they feel the full force of our laws, including the proscription that has been put in place. They are on par with how terrorist organisations conduct themselves, and they plan their attacks.
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.
Cooper suggests she was ‘angry’ about Mandelson appointment
Yvette Cooper was interviewed by the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg on her Sunday politics progamme after the Sky interview.
Kuenssberg underscored the chaos inside Downing Street by listing all of the departures from the prime minisiter’s team since Labour won a landslide general election in July 2024. These included:
Cooper acknowlegded it had been a “difficult week” in which the Scottish Labour leader, Anas Sarwar, called for the prime minister to resign after saying there had been “too many mistakes” under Keir Starmer’s leadership.
Kuenssberg asks the foreign secretary whether Starmer should listen to the women in his government more. “I feel actually quite angry about some of the issues we’ve had,” Cooper said, in reference to the appointment to Peter Mandelson as US ambassador.
She stressed the real focus should be on Jeffrey Epstein’s victims and the work Labour has done around tackling violence against women and girls (VAWG).
The government’s VAWG strategy includes focusing on prevention and tackling harmful behaviours in boys by teaching pupils about healthy relationships and pornography.
Critics, however, have questioned whether the government’s actions have matched their rhetoric on the issue and have criticised the level of funding given to the problem.
‘Significant process failures’ in appointment of Matthew Doyle to Lords, foreign secretary says
The foreign secretary, Yvette Cooper, was asked about the appointment of Keir Starmer’s former spin doctor Matthew Doyle to the House of Lords.
Doyle has been suspended from the Labour whip in his new role in the Lords after it emerged that he had campaigned on behalf of a friend who had been charged with possessing indecent images of children.
Trevor Phillips asked Cooper if she was confident that nobody else in “her administration” campaigned for Sean Morton, a former Labour councillor in Moray who admitted indecent child image offences in 2017. Cooper told Sky News:
I think there has clearly been some significant process failures in this appointment. There is still a review under way on that …
We do take this extremely seriously. Keir Starmer has … talked about the imporatnce of standards in public life. And that is why we take this so seriously …
For me there is just a wider issue here, which is that I personally in opposition made it Labour’s misson to half violence against women and girls in a decade.
And also in the Home Office made that a central mission for the government. And now in the Foreign Office I’m making it a priority as part of our foreign policy across the world.
Starmer has been under intense political pressure since he admitted to appointing Peter Mandelson to the role of US ambassador despite knowing about Mandelson’s friendship with the late sex offender and financier Jeffrey Epstein.
Huda Ammori, a co-founder of Palestine Action, who brought the high court challenge, called it a “monumental victory”. She said on Friday:
We were banned because Palestine Action’s disruption of Israel’s largest weapons manufacturer, Elbit Systems, cost the corporation millions of pounds in profits and to lose out on multibillion-pound contracts.
We’ve used the same tactics as direct action organisations throughout history, including anti-war groups Keir Starmer defended in court, and the government acknowledged in these legal proceedings that this ban was based on property damage, not violence against people.
Banning Palestine Action was always about appeasing pro-Israel lobby groups and weapons manufacturers, and nothing to do with terrorism … Today’s landmark ruling is a victory for freedom for all, and I urge the government to respect the court’s decision and bring this injustice to an end without further delay.
As the Guardian’s legal affairs correspondent Haroon Saddique notes in this story, Ammori said her lawyers would resist Shabana Mahmood’s attempts to retain the ban while the home secretary tried to appeal against the judgment.
The fate of more than 2,500 people arrested for supporting Palestine Action since proscription remains uncertain after the current home secretary, Shabana Mahmood, said she would appeal against the ban.
Proscription makes it a criminal offence to belong to or support Palestine Action, punishable by up to 14 years in prison.
Nearly 700 people have been charged with a terrorism offence and faced preliminary court proceedings although no one has yet been convicted.
The Metropolitan police said it will stop arresting protesters who hold up signs declaring “I support Palestine Action” in the wake of the High Court ruling.
But the force said it will continue to gather evidence of overt support for Palestine Action, because the proscription order remains in place until the government appeal has been dealt with.
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.
Cooper defends decision to proscribe Palestine Action despite ban being ruled unlawful
Now to some UK news … In a significant blow to the Home Office, the High Court ruled last week that the ban of Palestine Action under terrorism legislation was unlawful and “disproportionate”, with most of their activities having not reached the level, scale and persistence to be defined as terrorism.
The high court said the then home secretary Yvette Cooper had not followed her own policies when bringing in the controversial ban last summer.
When asked about her decision making, Cooper told Sky News:
Well, 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.
Cooper was pressed to reveal the advice she was given that informed her decision to pursue the ban, but did not, instead saying: “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.”
Yvette Cooper is asked in her Sky News interview whether she agrees with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s assessment that the supposed rules-based world order has collapsed.
The foreign secretary acknowledges huge political instability around the world, economic shifts, driven by the rise of China and protectionism, and marks the Russian aggression as a “persistent” threat that Europe has to face up to.
She also acknowlegded that the US is “changing their focus” and will reduce funding for European security, which means Europe has to “step up to the plate” in defending itself.
You can keep up with the latest lines from Europe in our Munich Security Conference blog helmed by the brilliant Jakub Krupa.
Patrick Wintour
Patrick Wintour is diplomatic editor for the Guardian
The intelligence agencies claimed laboratory testing found that the deadly toxin in the skin of Ecuador dart frogs (epibatidine) was found in samples from Navalny’s body and probably resulted in his death.
The statement adds: “Only the Russian state had the means, motive and opportunity to deploy this lethal toxin to target Navalny during his imprisonment in a Russian penal colony in Siberia, and we hold it responsible for his death.”
“Epibatidine can be found naturally in dart frogs in the wild in South America. Dart frogs in captivity do not produce this toxin and it is not found naturally in Russia. There is no innocent explanation for its presence in Navalny’s body.”
Although it had been widely assumed that Navalny had been poisoned by the Russian state, the evidence of the specific poison in his body is a new development.
His wife, Yulia Navalny, posted in September that there was evidence of poison in his body at the time an autopsy was conducted. You can read the full story here:
Cooper says UK and European allies have ‘exposed barbaric Kremlin plot’
Speaking to Sky’s Trevor Phillips from Munich, Yvette Cooper said for the two years since the announcement of Navalny’s death, work has taken place among European partners “on pursuing the evidence and pursuing the truth”. The UK’s foreign secretary said:
And that is why we have together found the evidence of this lethal toxin that was found in Alexei Navalny’s body at time he died.
And only the Russian regime had the motive, the means and the opportunity to administer this lethal posion while he was in prison in Russia.
They wanted to silence him because he was a critic of their regime and that is why we have exposed this barbaric Kremlin plot to do so and made sure that we have done so with evidence as well.
The reason as well that we have done this is was one of the things that Alexei Navalny himself said that. He said ‘tell the truth, spread the truth, that is the most dangerous weapon of all’. The Russian regime tried to stop him doing so, so we have done so instead.
Foreign secretary to face questions after UK said Russia killed Navalny with frog toxin
Good morning and welcome to our live coverage of UK politics. The British foreign secretary, Yvette Cooper, is speaking to Sky News this morning, a day after the UK said the late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was killed using a poison developed from a dart frog toxin administered by the Russian state two years ago.
The assessmnet was made from the foreign ministries of the UK, France, Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands after analysis of material samples found on Nalvany’s body.
The European countries said they were reporting Russia to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons for a breach of the Chemical Weapons Convention.
In February 2024, Navalny, who was a fierce critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, died in a remote Arctic penal colony where he was serving a 19-year sentence on extremism charges that were widely seen as politically motivated.
Speaking from the Munich Security Conference, Cooper said: “Only the Russian government had the means, motive and opportunity to deploy this lethal toxin against Alexei Navalny during his imprisonment in Russia.”
Moscow has reportedly dismissed the assessmnent as “an information campaign”. Stick with us as we give you the latest.
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