{"id":804838,"date":"2026-10-16T20:32:10","date_gmt":"2026-10-16T20:32:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/804838\/"},"modified":"2026-10-16T20:32:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-16T20:32:10","slug":"uk-pm-advisers-wife-expresses-support-for-palestine-action-israel-palestine-conflict-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/804838\/","title":{"rendered":"UK PM adviser\u2019s wife expresses \u2018support\u2019 for Palestine Action | Israel-Palestine conflict News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Police reviewing social media post by writer Sarah Helm, wife of Burnham\u2019s National Security Adviser Jonathan Powell.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Published On 16 Oct 202616 Oct 2026<\/p>\n

British police are reviewing a social media post by the wife of National Security Adviser Jonathan Powell in which she appears to endorse Palestine Action, a group proscribed in the country as a \u201cterrorist\u201d organisation.<\/p>\n

\u201cGod help us authors who support Palestine and Palestine Action,\u201d Sarah Helm, a writer who is married to Powell \u2013 Prime Minister Andy Burnham\u2019s national security adviser \u2013 wrote on X on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Recommended Stories list of 2 itemsend of list<\/p>\n

She was responding to a post defending Irish novelist Sally Rooney<\/a>, who this week announced her books would no longer be sold in the United Kingdom over her plans to use her royalties to support Palestine Action.<\/p>\n

A Metropolitan Police spokesperson on Friday said Helm\u2019s post is \u201cbeing assessed to determine whether any further police investigation may be required\u201d.<\/p>\n

A government spokesperson cited by the Reuters news agency said the views expressed in Helm\u2019s post \u201care held by an individual who does not represent the government in any capacity\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u2018Absurdly authoritarian ban\u2019<\/p>\n

UK-based activist group Defend Our Juries defended Helm for defying what it called an \u201cabsurdly authoritarian ban on Palestine Action\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know of 36 people who have been arrested and had their homes raided for similarly expressing support for Palestine Action on social media,\u201d said a spokesperson for the group.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe hope Sarah will not face the same treatment for standing up for free speech and Palestinian lives.\u201d<\/p>\n

The UK government outlawed Palestine Action<\/a> in July 2025, after activists from the group broke into a Royal Air Force base and sprayed red paint on two aircraft to protest against UK military support for Israel\u2019s genocidal war on Gaza. Being a member or a supporter is punishable by up to 14 years in prison.<\/p>\n

Since the ban went into effect, police have arrested<\/a> more than 3,500 people in the UK for alleged support of the group, many of them for holding up placards, according to rights group Amnesty International.<\/p>\n

Palestine Action has contested its proscription, but the Court of Appeal upheld it in June<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The UK\u2019s new Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband last month said the government was \u201clooking at\u201d the Palestine Action ban, adding that he did not believe mass arrests resulting from its proscription were \u201canyone\u2019s intent\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Police reviewing social media post by writer Sarah Helm, wife of Burnham\u2019s National Security Adviser Jonathan Powell. Published…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":804839,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[6119,591,9881,59,57,58,937,9084,590,632,50,9086,288,3283,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-804838","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-censorship","tag-europe","tag-gaza","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-human-rights","tag-israel","tag-israel-palestine-conflict","tag-middle-east","tag-news","tag-palestine","tag-police","tag-protests","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/804838","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=804838"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/804838\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/804839"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=804838"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=804838"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=804838"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}