Police said the stops were made under schedule 3 to the Counter-Terrorism and Border Security Act 2019. <\/p>\n
This allows an officer to stop, question, search and detain a person at a port or the border area in the UK to determine if they have engaged in hostile activity.<\/p>\n
Those being detained can be required to provide information including passwords to devices. It is not known whether this was requested in this instance. <\/p>\n
A Met Police spokesman said: “We can confirm that on Saturday, counter-terrorism officers at Gatwick airport stopped a man in his 70s and a woman in her 40s under schedule 3 of the Counter Terrorism and Border Security Act 2019.”<\/p>\n
“Neither of them were arrested and they were allowed on their way.”<\/p>\n
The Workers Party of Britain said it was informed Galloway and his wife had been detained at Gatwick by police on Saturday morning. <\/p>\n
In a later statement on X it said Galloway, 71, and his 40-year-old wife had been released without charge.<\/p>\n
It added: “There was never any chance of an offence.<\/p>\n
“We were obstructed from providing legal support and the conduct of the affair has been designed to intimidate political opponents of the drive towards war with Russia and China.”<\/p>\n
Galloway was a Labour MP until 2003, before sitting in the Commons as an independent and Respect Party MP for three constituencies between 2003 and 2015.<\/p>\n