Burnham defends ‘evidence-based’ proscription of Palestine Action
At PMQs Burnham ejected calls to commit to a review of the Keir Starmer-led government's decision to proscribe the group
Andy Burnham has rejected calls to commit to a review of the Keir Starmer-led government’s decision to proscribe the Palestine Action group.
Northern Irish SDLP MP Claire Hanna said the move had “extraordinary consequences for freedom of expression, including for constituents of mine who are facing terror charges for peaceful protest.”
But, responding at Prime Minister’s Questions, the Burnham stressed: “When it comes to the proscription of Palestine Action, it followed a rigorous and evidence-based process that came before this House, endorsed by Parliament.”
The Prime Minister added that the matter was also “a live legal case,” and said he “won’t comment further than that.”
Earlier, Hanna had cited the case of a three-year-old girl left badly burned in Gaza, “having watched her mother being killed by an Israeli airstrike.”
Palestinian media reported that journalist Ali al-Jaafrawi, who filmed the incident, reached the girl, Maryam Ghanem, carried her out of the flat, and handed her to people at the scene to take her to hospital.
Israel has said it is investigating the strike, claiming it targeted a Hamas operative.
Burnham told MPs: “We agree the scenes from Gaza and the West Bank are deeply distressing.”
“It’s why the Foreign Secretary has taken the action that he has. We won’t stand by while the viability of the two-state solution is threatened, and he has made a further statement in relation to that this week.”
Normal People author Sally Rooney said she will no longer be able to sell her books in the UK over her support for the Palestine Action group.
The Palestine Action ban, which began on July 5 2025, made membership of, or support for, the direct-action group a criminal offence punishable by up to 14 years in prison.
Rooney previously said she would donate her earnings from her books and BBC adaptations of novels to Palestine Action, which has a state goal of “ending global participation in Israel’s genocidal and apartheid regime”.
As a result, MRooney’s publisher, Faber, has determined it cannot sell her novels in Britain.
The Irish author, 35, told the BBC that further publication of her work could constitute a “serious criminal offence”, so she had agreed with her publisher not to continue supplying her books to UK retailers.