More than 50 held as officers move in on rally backing banned Palestine Action outside Labour conference

More than 50 demonstrators were arrested outside the Labour Party's annual conference in Liverpool after a protest in support of the banned group Palestine Action, Merseyside Police have said. The detentions followed a sit-in outside the conference centre in which campaigners displayed signs declaring their backing for the proscribed organisation, which officers said was unlawful.

The demonstration, held under the name Defend Our Juries, drew a crowd of more than 250 people, many of whom sat down on the pavement carrying home-made banners that read "I support Palestine Action". Images of the protest show officers in yellow high-visibility jackets physically removing supporters from the crowd.

Police officers initially stood by the assembled protesters, warning them that displaying material in support of a proscribed organisation was illegal. Officers then asked those taking part whether they intended to continue holding their placards. When the crowd did not disperse, officers began leading individuals away, telling them they were being arrested under the Terrorism Act.

Merseyside Police said officers were still "in the process of making arrests" on suspicion of wearing or carrying an article supporting a proscribed organisation. A force spokesperson said the police respected the right of everyone to protest lawfully, while also seeking to keep the peace and ensure public safety.

The spokesperson added that the force had made "detailed and co-ordinated plans ahead of such events to ensure it can apply this consistently, fairly and proportionately", and stressed that not everyone present at the protest had been committing a criminal offence — a distinction organisers say did little to ease the atmosphere on the day.

Supporters of the group reacted to each removal with cheers, applauding and celebrating every time a protester was carried away by officers. Among those detained was the human rights barrister Margaret Owen, aged 94, whose involvement drew particular attention given her age and legal standing.

The arrests were strongly criticised by Amnesty International, which described them as a shameful attack on freedom of speech. Kerry Moscogiuri, chief executive of Amnesty International UK, said protesting remains one of the most effective tools people have to make their leaders listen, but that successive governments have increasingly sought to restrict it. Referring specifically to the detentions of grandparents, teenagers and people in between for holding placards outside the Labour conference, she said the new prime minister has the ability to reform the law so that communities are able to come together and demonstrate on the issues they care about — and asked whether he intends to do so.

Defend Our Juries said it had hoped the new prime minister, Andy Burnham, would move to scrap the ban in light of the growing public pressure to do so and the increasing amount of public and police resources needed to enforce it. A spokesperson said continuing what the group called the "charade" of the proscription of Palestine Action was illogical, unsustainable and immoral.

The legal position remains unsettled. The ban on the organisation came into force in July 2025, and in July the Supreme Court confirmed that the proscription would be reviewed, granting the group's co-founder permission to appeal. Soon afterwards, Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said the government would "robustly defend" that appeal.

The Home Office has repeatedly insisted that the proscription has nothing to do with the right to protest in support of Palestinian causes, arguing instead that it was necessary because the organisation was responsible for significant criminal damage to legitimate businesses.

Judicial findings to date have been mixed in their implications. Both the High Court and the Court of Appeal have ruled that the activities of Palestine Action include criminal acts, although judges were divided over whether those incidents justified the use of terrorism legislation to ban the group. The Court of Appeal upheld the lawfulness of the ban in June, and the outstanding Supreme Court review — the first test of the proscription before the highest court — will determine how far the current framework can stand.

Organisers have staged repeated demonstrations since the ban took effect, including a previous gathering outside Westminster Magistrates' Court in July, when protesters returned to the courts to call for the ban to be lifted. Those who gathered in Liverpool this week were following the same template, but this time the confrontation moved from the steps of a court to the doorstep of a major political gathering.

The scale of the operation — scores of officers, a crowd numbering in the hundreds and arrests running into dozens — has itself become a focus of criticism, with campaigners and civil liberties groups arguing that enforcing the ban at party conferences and public demonstrations is a costly and legally fraught use of police time. The force's insistence that it made co-ordinated plans in advance of the event has drawn a sharp contrast with the visible disruption outside the conference, where cheerful supporters chanted and applauded each arrest.

BBC News has asked the Ministry of Justice to comment on the arrests, and the Home Secretary's office has yet to respond publicly on the Liverpool operation. With the Supreme Court appeal pending and a new government in office, the case has become a test of both judicial review of terrorism-related proscriptions and the limits of protest policing at national political events. Organisers say they will continue to demonstrate, while supporters of the ban maintain the criminality they cite justifies keeping the organisation listed.