Palestine Action banned as terrorist organisation – after losing late legal challenge

Palestine Action has been banned as a terrorist group after a late-night legal bid to delay it failed.

MPs overwhelmingly voted in favour of Home Secretary Yvette Cooper's decision to proscribe the protest group under the Terrorism Act 2000 on Wednesday and Lords have approved the move. The law change, which adds Palestine Action to the list of banned organisations along with the likes of al Qaeda, ISIS and Hezbollah, came into force at midnight.

It makes membership of, or support for, the direct action group a criminal offence punishable by up to 14 years in prison, while even wearing a T-shirt or badge with the group's name on attracts a maximum six-month sentence. Ms Cooper announced plans to proscribe Palestine Action after two Voyager aircraft were allegedly damaged at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire on 20 June, which police said caused around £7m worth of damage.

But the High Court heard the decision had been taken before the incident and as early as March this year. Huda Ammori, the co-founder of Palestine Action, is seeking to bring a legal challenge against the Home Office with a hearing for permission to bring a judicial review set to take place during the week of 21 July.

On Friday, her lawyers applied for "interim relief" to temporarily block the legislation from coming into force until that hearing, arguing the Irish author Sally Rooney, who wrote Normal People, was among supporters who fear the "ramifications". But three judges, including the Lady Chief Justice Baroness Carr, refused refused a bid to pause the ban coming into effect pending any Supreme Court bid at about 10.30pm on Friday, less than two hours before the ban was due to come into force.

In their judgement, the judges said: "The role of the court is simply to interpret and apply the law. "The merits of the underlying decision to proscribe a particular group is not a matter for the court...

Similarly, it is not a matter for this court to express any views on whether or not the allegations or claims made by Palestine Action are right or wrong." Around 200 protesters earlier gathered outside court in support of the group, with some banging drums, waving Palestinian flags, wearing the keffiyeh scarf or holding placards and signs. Counter-protesters also arrived amid a heavy police presence.

Read more from Sky News:Has Labour's first year has been a success or failure?Hamas gives 'positive' response to ceasefire plan but asks for amendments Raza Husain KC - one of 13 barristers inside a courtroom packed with journalists and members of the public - said his client Ms Ammori was inspired by the "long tradition" of direct action in the UK from suffragettes and activists protesting against apartheid and the Iraq war. "This is the first time in our history a direct action, civil disobedience group which does not advocate violence has sought to be proscribed as terrorists," he said.

"We ask you to suspend, in the first instance until 21 July, what we say is an ill-considered, discriminatory, authoritarian abuse of statutory power that is alien to the basic tradition of common law and contrary to the Human Rights Act." Blinne Ni Ghralaigh KC, also representing Ms Ammori, said, along with the hundreds of T-shirts in circulation, the red boiler suits associated with the group and even kaffiyehs could "arouse suspicion of membership". She said the ban would have a "chilling effect" on protest and free speech, criminalising "a huge range of behaviour.