A UK government review into contentious new protest legislation has ignited controversy for its apparent exclusion of key stakeholders. The Palestine Coalition, the organizing body behind 33 national pro-Palestine marches, was initially omitted from consultation despite its central role in the demonstrations under scrutiny.
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood initiated the independent review in November, tasking Lord Ken Macdonald KC with examining whether recent amendments to public order and hate crime laws were being implemented effectively. The review emerged following government concerns about protest timing after a tragic antisemitic attack on a Manchester synagogue.
The oversight has raised serious questions about the review’s comprehensiveness and impartiality. The coalition, whose largest member organization (Palestine Solidarity Campaign) represents over 15,000 members across nearly 100 UK branches, had to proactively request participation after discovering their initial exclusion.
Further concerns emerged regarding transparency, as the review’s terms of reference were not initially made public, and consulted organizations were reportedly given limited time for submissions to meet the February 2026 deadline.
The controversy deepens when examining Lord Macdonald’s previous public positions. He co-authored a letter to The Times in October 2023 defending Israel’s siege of Gaza as self-defense and later signed a UK Lawyers for Israel letter arguing against weapons sale suspensions to Israel.
The Palestine Coalition’s submission vigorously challenges the government’s narrative, rejecting attempts to connect the Manchester synagogue attack with peaceful protests and highlighting the demonstrations’ overwhelmingly peaceful character with lower arrest rates than typical football matches or festivals.
The review occurs alongside broader concerns from 40 civil society organizations, including Amnesty International UK and Liberty, who have denounced the government’s proposed legal changes as a “draconian crackdown” on fundamental democratic rights.