A fierce debate over political expression and government overreach has engulfed UK politics this week, after prominent author and journalist Sarah Helm publicly challenged the Labour government’s ban on Palestine Action, throwing the legality and public impact of the controversial proscription into the national spotlight.
Helm, a veteran former foreign correspondent for *The Independent* and longstanding critic of Israeli policy toward Palestinians, stepped forward this week to defend best-selling Irish novelist Sally Rooney, who has had all her works pulled from UK distribution after announcing she would direct book proceeds to Palestine Action. The grassroots direct action group, which targets arms manufacturers that supply components to Israel, was proscribed as a terrorist organization by Keir Starmer’s Labour government in July 2025. Under the new law, public expressions of support for Palestine Action or membership in the group carry a maximum criminal penalty of 14 years in prison.
Helm’s public rebuke came in response to veteran Sky News journalist Adam Boulton, who appeared on air Thursday to attack Rooney, claiming she held a “very strong pro-Palestine, and, I have to say, anti-Israel and anti-Jewish stance”. On the social platform X, Helm fired back: “God help us authors who support Palestine and Palestine Action. Sounds like Adam would have all our books swept off the shelves in a jiffy.”
What makes Helm’s act of defiance particularly politically charged is her personal connection to the top ranks of the UK government: she is married to Jonathan Powell, Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s chief national security adviser, who retained the post after Burnham took office from Keir Starmer. Powell, a former senior Downing Street official during Tony Blair’s premiership, made headlines last month when he publicly opposed Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband’s decision to sanction illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank.
Beyond her career as a journalist, Helm is a noted authority on the history of Gaza, publishing *Gaza: The Long Road to Destruction, 1870-2024* in 2025, a work that draws on firsthand interviews with survivors of the 1948 Nakba to document the territory’s modern history. She has also contributed reporting and analysis to Middle East Eye.
In the wake of her social media post, pro-Israel advocacy groups including the Campaign Against Antisemitism have formally called for UK police to open a criminal investigation into Helm for violating the proscription law. As of this week, thousands of people across the UK have been arrested for holding pro-Palestine Action placards or posting messages of support for the group online, a crackdown that human rights organizations have already labeled draconian and a fundamental attack on civil liberties.
Campaign groups opposing the ban say Helm’s open defiance exposes the inherent absurdity and unsustainability of the legislation, which is set to be challenged in the UK Supreme Court next month. “How can Andy Burnham’s government possibly defend this ban in the Supreme Court next month when his own national security adviser’s wife has openly defied it? This unprecedented attack on free speech in our country is plainly unsustainable,” said a spokesperson for Defend Our Juries, an organization campaigning to overturn the proscription. “We know of 36 people who have been arrested and had their homes raided for similarly expressing support for Palestine Action on social media. We hope Sarah will not face the same treatment for standing up for free speech and Palestinian lives. But her defiance further exposes the absurdity of a ban that cannot be enforced against everyone who challenges it.”
Marji Mansfield, a 70-year-old retired tax adviser who was arrested earlier this year for posting a short clip expressing support for Palestine Action on social media and had counter-terrorism officers raid her home, echoed that sentiment. “Sarah Helm is similarly at risk of arrest for speaking out against the first ever ban of a direct action protest group in Britain,” Mansfield said. “We are on the right side of history.”
The current controversy began earlier this week when news broke that Rooney’s books would be removed from the UK market. After the ban was enacted, Rooney publicly stated she would continue supporting Palestine Action, noting that the group remains legal in her home country of the Republic of Ireland. She explained that UK publishers could face criminal charges for continuing to distribute her work, so she voluntarily ended distribution of her books in the UK. Rooney previously canceled a September 2024 trip to England to accept a major literary award out of fear she would be arrested over her political views. The Supreme Court challenge to the ban is scheduled for a hearing later this year.
Even within the UK government, there are growing signs of unease over the scope of the crackdown that has followed the ban. Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband acknowledged last month that the government is reviewing whether the proscription was politically wise, admitting that leaders never intended the policy to result in mass arrests of peaceful activists. “I don’t think anyone’s intent was to have those people criminalised, but obviously the Supreme Court has got to look at this issue, and obviously it’s something we keep looking at as government,” Miliband said.
Human rights groups have condemned the knock-on effects of the ban on artistic and political expression, warning that it has created a culture of fear where writers face professional ruin for holding dissenting views. “Whatever one’s views on Palestine Action, we should all be concerned when laws intended to combat terrorism end up silencing artistic freedom and the ability to engage in peaceful political dissent,” Kerry Moscogiuri, chief executive of Amnesty International UK, told *The Guardian*. “Writers should not find their books disappearing from shelves because of their political beliefs. Nor should people have to choose between expressing their conscience and pursuing their livelihoods.”