Tuesday briefing: What new plans to curb pro-Palestine Actio...

Good morning. In 2014, a backbench Labour MP named Shabana Mahmood lay on the floor of her local Sainsbury’s in protest against the sale of products made in illegal Israeli settlements. A week later, she spoke to crowds at a Free Palestine protest in Hyde Park, of the “compassion and humanity expressed for the people of Gaza … from every race and every religion.”

Compare and contrast with the 2025 Shabana Mahmood, now home secretary, whose new policies could see people arrested for the very same actions. She has just announced a fresh tranche of anti-protest policies that would allow police to re-route, and potentially shut down protests which repeatedly take place in the same area because of their cumulative impact.

So which Mahmood is in the right? Do these new proposals change anything, and if so, will they apply just to pro-Palestine marches or to far-right groups, too? To answer those questions, I spoke to Dr Richard Martin, an expert in the policing of protest at the London School of Economics. That’s after the headlines.

Five big stories

UK news | Neighbours of the Manchester synagogue attacker reported concerns to police about him and a family member being “radicalised” and attempting to “preach” the Qur’an to local children, the Guardian has been told.
Gaza | International activists, journalists and lawyers deported from Israel after attempting to breach the 16-year maritime blockade of Gaza as part of a humanitarian flotilla have alleged being subjected to brutal physical and verbal abuse by Israeli forces during their detention.
Politics | The finances of one of Nigel Farage’s key confidants are being examined by the UK’s tax and revenue authorities amid questions over his income from wealth and business activities, the Guardian understands.
US news | The US supreme court has declined to hear an appeal from Jeffrey Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell of her sex trafficking conviction. Maxwell in 2022 was sentenced to 20 years in prison for sex trafficking and related crimes.
France | The country’s political crisis has deepened after the new prime minister dramatically resigned within hours of appointing a government. Sébastien Lecornu, the third prime minister in a year, quit hours before his first cabinet meeting on Monday afternoon.

In depth: ‘Whether the police want to be seen every weekend making mass arrests is a real issue for them’

The context for this weekend’s announcement is obvious: on Thursday, a horrific attack took place at a synagogue in Manchester, on the holiest day in the Jewish calendar, claiming the lives of two people. It was one of the worst acts of antisemitic terrorism in modern British history.

Rather than focusing on what could be done to protect the Jewish community from such violence, or what may have gone wrong that allowed the perpetrator to be unknown to the Prevent programme, the government immediately took aim at pro-Palestine protesters, who have been marching regularly since the escalation of the war in Gaza, asking protesters instead to “respect the grief of British Jews”. Mahmood called the decision to go ahead with another pro-Palestine protest “fundamentally un-British” and “dishonourable”.

The protests over the weekend saw almost 500 of those protesting against the proscription of Palestine Action arrested (of those only four were for unrelated charges, such as common assault), and in response, the government put out an announcement on Sunday, saying it would amend sections 12 and 14 of the Public Order Act 1986 to further impose conditions on public protests and assemblies.

The changes to the law would allow police officers to consider the cumulative impact of protest when deciding whether or not they are lawful, meaning they could potentially re-route or totally shut down protest they believe could cause serious disruption to local communities. The changes are supposed to reference and respond to the real anxiety felt by many British Jews as a result of the antisemitism that can sometimes infect anti-Israel movements.

In the statement, the government made clear its intention for the changes: “Large, repeated protests can leave sections of our country, particularly religious communities, feeling unsafe, intimidated and scared to leave their homes. This has been particularly evident in relation to the considerable fear within the Jewish community … These changes mark an important step in ensuring we protect the right to protest while ensuring all feel safe in this country.”

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We’ve been here before

Dr Richard Martin points out that two years ago a different home secretary, the Conservative Suella Braverman, made a very similar announcement, only at that time in relation to the environmental protest group Extinction Rebellion. “I think you could find exactly the same [sentiment] if you just replaced ‘religious communities’ with ‘law-abiding people’,” he explained.

When Braverman announced this two years ago, the Tories were looking at bringing in new powers under law to account for – you guessed it – the cumulative impact of regular protest. But crucially, they failed. The human rights organisation Liberty won an initial judicial review against the Home Office in May 2024, with the court deciding that its threshold for what constitutes “serious disruption” was too low. This year, a subsequent appeal against that judgment was brought under Keir Starmer’s government, which lost again in May this year.

So although the Labour party has given the Manchester attack as the reason for this announcement, it pertains to a longstanding Conservative policy the Labour government has sought to push through.

There are two key differences to how Labour will institute the change this time around, which Martin thinks makes it more likely to succeed. The first, he explained, is that it seems Labour won’t use the same low threshold of “more than minor” disruption that was ruled unlawful by the courts; and secondly, they won’t try to slip the change in through regulations, but instead by amending the 1986 act – which will include greater parliamentary involvement and scrutiny, but also, makes it harder to subsequently amend.

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The mood music

If you’ve been at any protest in the past few decades, you’ll know that police often reroute protesters, restrict them through kettling, or tell them to move on and protest elsewhere. Do these new laws really represent a serious difference?

Martin thinks they do – but more as a vibe shift than anything else. “Crucially, the government is trying to send a signal to the police: to get tougher, less tolerant and to put more weight on the other side of the scales,” he said. “What happens next depends on how susceptible senior police officers are to the mood music.”

There is an excellent quote from Gordon Brown, who was in opposition when the Public Order Act was passed, which Martin references: “there are as many views as there are policemen as to what constitutes serious disruption to the life of the community”. As Martin explained: “It’s such a wide term – if the police wanted to, I am quite sure they could [enforce this] already.”

But it’s not a given that they will be susceptible to the government’s song. In recent weeks, the images coming out of the protests over Palestine Action – a blind man in his 60s being walked out by a procession of officers; everyone from a Catholic priest to an 81-year-old woman with an OBE being arrested for quietly holding placards – have posed a serious legitimacy problem for the police. “Getting arrested for the cause is part of the tactic,” explained Martin. “And the broader question of whether the police want to be seen every weekend making these mass arrests is a real issue for them.” After all, the Met is hardly free from reputational issues at the moment.

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The death of a cause

Ultimately, it’s not clear protesters have any intention of slowing down, and since police officers will be able to interpret these law changes as they wish, this could all still be seriously bad news for those who take to the street.

“The key problem is, if the police get it wrong and they impose restrictions that are disproportionate, you’re not going to find out about that until long after the offence, and [even then a protester would need] the power, money and clout to challenge that through a judicial review,” explained Martin.

In recent years, protesters have sought to justify their actions in court with a defence that they had a “reasonable” or “lawful” excuse if they had broken the law, in effect, requiring the prosecution to justify why a conviction outweighs the right to peaceful protest. For the public order offences Labour are seeking to attach cumulative impact to, the courts have held firm that there will be no allowance for such a defence.

I ask Martin why these same laws aren’t being suggested to police far-right rallies, particularly given the government justification of wanting to make sure that communities feel protected and free from intimidation.

“I think we need to be upfront about what’s prompted this,” he said. “It’s not far-right rallies. The target to begin with was Extinction Rebellion, and now it’s Palestine Action.” He thinks that it is the shared tactic of these two groups – which he defined as “a campaign of attrition where you keep protesting to effectively exhaust the police, to fill the custody suites” – that the government legislation is actually targeted at.

“Their approach … will potentially be met by police gradually breaking that technique down,” Martin explained. “It will mean there may be a greater number of arrests, the stakes for those arrested will be higher and we may well see less protest.”

What else we’ve been reading

The literary scene is about to get a whole lot less steamy with the sad news of Jilly Cooper’s death. Best known for her bonkbuster novels, our life in pictures is a lovely look back through her decades-long career. Toby Moses, head of newsletters
It’s so rare these days to hear anybody talk about party conference using words such as “joy” and “exuberant” – so I was very happy to read Adam Ramsay’s dispatch from the Green party conference. Poppy
In the latest instalment of “we’re all doomed”, Amelia Gentleman offers a frankly terrifying glimpse at the rise of AI relationship sites, offering “obedient, yielding and happy to follow girlfriends” to those willing to pay. Toby
This profile of indie rock pinup Evan Dando of the Lemonheads sees Dando being brutally frank and unfiltered – a good antidote for the kind of PR-managed celebrity interview that is all too common these days. Poppy
Can you be funny and sexy? It might feel a rather stale question, but with her Edinburgh-nominated show, Elouise Eftos has breathed new life into it, and as Brian Logan finds, rubbed up a lot of fellow comedians the wrong way in the process. Toby

Sport

Rugby union | Lewis Moody, the former England rugby captain and 2003 World Cup winner, has been diagnosed with motor neurone disease. The 47-year-old told the BBC he was having trouble accepting what the news meant for his future, and for his family, though his symptoms were relatively mild.

Football | Steven Gerrard is under strong consideration for a return to Rangers after the Scottish club confirmed the sacking of Russell Martin. Martin’s ill-fated Ibrox tenure ended with the manager leaving the Falkirk Stadium via a side door and a waiting car after a 1-1 draw which left Rangers 11 points from the summit of Scotland’s top flight after just seven games.

Formula One | Lando Norris delivered an uncompromising riposte to the complaints of his angry McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri after the pair clashed at the Singapore Grand Prix, declaring that anyone who would not attempt a similar overtake “should not be in Formula One”.

The front pages

“Labour’s new visa rules put NHS at risk, warn nurses,” is the splash on the Guardian today. “PM’s anger at student protests on October 7,” says the Times, while the i paper has “UK Gaza protests going ahead today on anniversary of October 7 massacre.” “Hope in Hell,” says the Mirror, while the Telegraph has “MI5 kept in dark in China spy trial fiasco.”

“OpenAI targets 10% chunk of AMD through multibillion-dollar chip deal,” is the top story on the FT, while the Express highlights “Tories pledge blitz on ‘scumbag’ store thieves.” The Mail has “Biggest phone gang smashed,” and the Metro: “Time to call your lawyer!”

Finally the Sun with “Romp In Peace, Jilly,” and the Star: “Queen’s tribute to ‘legend’ Jilly.”

Today in Focus

Can the Trump plan bring peace to Gaza?

On the face of it, Donald Trump’s 20-point Gaza plan looked far from promising. It was created with a notable lack of Palestinian input, at a time when Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, was mounting a ferocious attack on Gaza City. Yet now negotiators are gathering in Cairo and there is real momentum behind the talks. The Guardian’s diplomatic editor, Patrick Wintour discusses what an agreement might look like.

Cartoon of the day | Ben Jennings

The Upside

A bit of good news to remind you that the world’s not all bad

“As a child I devoured books until my eyes blurred,” says the Guardian’s Emma Loffhagen. But adulthood made life more complicated and, she began spending more time on our phone.

Relatable? Well, for the Guardian’s One change that worked series, Emma has written on how she became a bookworm once again. “About a year ago, I made a small vow: every time I came across a word I didn’t know, I would look it up and write it down. Each week, I’d spend a few minutes reading the list back in an attempt to lodge the word into my memory.

This “tiny ritual” has been transformative, says Emma. “In an era when our devices siphon off our attention with merciless efficiency, it feels subversive to use mine as a tool for slow thinking.”

Sign up here for a weekly roundup of The Upside, sent to you every Sunday

Bored at work?

And finally, the Guardian’s puzzles are here to keep you entertained throughout the day. Until tomorrow.