Police reviewing social media submit by author Sarah Helm, spouse of Burnham’s Nationwide Safety Adviser Jonathan Powell.
Printed On 16 Oct 2026
British police are reviewing a social media submit by the spouse of Nationwide Safety Adviser Jonathan Powell through which she seems to endorse Palestine Motion, a bunch proscribed within the nation as a “terrorist” organisation.
“God assist us authors who assist Palestine and Palestine Motion,” Sarah Helm, a author who’s married to Powell – Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s nationwide safety adviser – wrote on X on Thursday.
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She was responding to a submit defending Irish novelist Sally Rooney, who this week introduced her books would not be offered in the UK over her plans to make use of her royalties to assist Palestine Motion.
A Metropolitan Police spokesperson on Friday stated Helm’s submit is “being assessed to find out whether or not any additional police investigation could also be required”.
A authorities spokesperson cited by the Reuters information company stated the views expressed in Helm’s submit “are held by a person who doesn’t signify the federal government in any capability”.
‘Absurdly authoritarian ban’
UK-based activist group Defend Our Juries defended Helm for defying what it known as an “absurdly authoritarian ban on Palestine Motion”.
“We all know of 36 individuals who have been arrested and had their properties raided for equally expressing assist for Palestine Motion on social media,” stated a spokesperson for the group.
“We hope Sarah won’t face the identical remedy for standing up totally free speech and Palestinian lives.”
The UK authorities outlawed Palestine Action in July 2025, after activists from the group broke right into a Royal Air Drive base and sprayed pink paint on two plane to protest towards UK navy assist for Israel’s genocidal conflict on Gaza. Being a member or a supporter is punishable by as much as 14 years in jail.
For the reason that ban went into impact, police have arrested greater than 3,500 folks within the UK for alleged assist of the group, lots of them for holding up placards, in accordance with rights group Amnesty Worldwide.
Palestine Motion has contested its proscription, however the Courtroom of Attraction upheld it in June.
The UK’s new International Secretary Ed Miliband final month stated the federal government was “” the Palestine Motion ban, including that he didn’t imagine mass arrests ensuing from its proscription had been “anybody’s intent”.
