Almost 200 people gathered outside Andy Burnham’s first Labour party conference as prime minister to defy the ban on Palestine Action by holding signs that read “I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action”. Two hours into the demonstration on Sunday 27 September – the opening day of the conference in Liverpool – Merseyside police had…
Page A5From§Eachthe wee small hours edition — 28 September 2026
Britain's arrest count for a banned protest group nears four thousand; the latest one is 94 years old.
As it ran on the front
Britain's count of people arrested for supporting a proscribed protest group is closing in on four thousand, fourteen months after the government designated Palestine Action a terrorist organization under the Terrorism Act. On Sunday the tally picked up a 94-year-old human rights lawyer, taken from outside Andy Burnham's first Labour Party conference as prime minister, in Liverpool.
The demonstration that produced the arrest had been advertised for more than a week. On 18 September, the campaign group Defend Our Juries said hundreds of people would gather at the opening of the conference holding signs reading "I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action." By 25 September the group was calling it a silent vigil and telling members to expect arrests. On 27 September, almost 200 people showed up and did exactly what they had said they would do. Two hours in, Merseyside police started arresting them for the sign.…
…(cont) Outside the same conference, on the same day, Unison general secretary Andrea Egan led a separate demonstration with a separate ask: that Burnham scrap Home Office reforms making it harder for foreign care workers to win permanent residence in Britain. Egan called the reforms wrong. Communities Secretary Angela Rayner has already called them "unBritish."
Trade unions, students, faith groups and campaigners joined Stand Up to Racism and Women Against the Far Right for a march against the extremism the terrorism law is supposedly there to stop.
Add the day up. A 94-year-old lawyer arrested for a sign. A union asking the prime minister to reverse a different Home Office policy. Hundreds of people marching, unmolested, against the actual far right, a few streets from where the lawyer was taken in. The law was sold as a tool against extremism. Fourteen months and nearly four thousand arrests later, extremism is still what people march against in this country, not what police arrest people for. Holding the sign is.
“They call this counter-terrorism, but the only person going to a cell this week is a 94-year-old holding cardboard outside a Labour conference — not anyone from the far-right side hundreds of people marched against across town. Nearly four thousand arrests in, the law keeps finding the smallest, safest possible target and calling it leadership. That's not policing extremism, that's running up a number you can point to while the actual extremists keep walking around unbothered.”
“The law applies equally regardless of age — a 94-year-old who supports a proscribed organization gets treated the same as anyone else, that's just consistency. Did I just make the case for arresting a pensioner as a matter of fairness? That doesn't sound like me. Look, the government has to enforce the statute as written, and if enforcement happens to land on sign-holders instead of, say, the people the march down the road was actually about, that's a resourcing question for the police, not a comment on the policy.”
Earlier in this story
- Belfast judge clears first Garvaghy Road march in 28 years, city marches out to stop it instead By Mort · the midnight edition, 28 September 2026
- Labour arrests its 4,000th protester, a 94-year-old lawyer, same conference that calls unions democracy's last line. By Sal · the midnight edition, 28 September 2026
- Labour conference arrests hundreds for backing banned group, hears fascism must be organized against, same day. By Sal · the late evening edition, 27 September 2026
The receipts
THE leader of Britain’s largest union will call on Prime Minister Andy Burnham to scrap Home Office reforms in a demonstration outside the Labour Party conference today. Unison general secretary Andrea Egan will urge him “to do the right thing” by dropping reforms that would make it harder for foreign care workers to claim permanent…
Nearly 4,000 people have now been arrested for peacefully supporting Palestine Action since it was designated a terror group in July 2025
HUNDREDS of anti-racists marched through Manchester over the weekend to oppose the far right. Protesters were accompanied by chants and music, with trade unions, students, faith groups and campaigners supporting the action by Stand Up to Racism. Women Against the Far Right led the march, which started at All Saints Park at noon and…
· Hundreds Set to Defy Palestine Action Ban at Labour Party Conference from the morgue, 18 Sep 2026
· Justice protesters to risk arrest at Labour conference from the morgue, 25 Sep 2026
· US Declares Palestine Action a ‘Terrorist Organisation’ from the morgue, 27 Aug 2026
· UN Expert Says Trump 'Murder' Spree at Sea May Constitute 'Crimes Against Humanity' from the morgue, 21 Sep 2026
This page is a back-issue: the story as it ran, receipts as they were. The current edition is at the front. The byline is a pen name for a column drafted by a machine and checked by the editor: how this is made.