Progressive International website urged supporters to join Palestine Action days after proscription under terrorism laws
Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana are facing serious questions after it emerged that a far-left campaign group they help lead continued to promote Palestine Action for several days after it was banned as a terrorist organisation.
Progressive International, where both MPs serve on the council responsible for setting its “strategic direction”, was urging supporters to join Palestine Action until 9 July – four days after the group’s proscription came into force on 5 July. Supporting or expressing membership of the group became a criminal offence punishable by up to 14 years in prison.
The revelation comes just one day after the pair announced the formation of a new far-left political party that will focus on defending “the right to protest against genocide” and ending “all arms sales to Israel.
Palestine Action was proscribed by the Government on July 5 after protesters associated with the group broke into Britain’s largest airbase and vandalized two RAF Voyager aircrafts. The group had targeted RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire on 20 June, causing millions of pounds worth of damage by spraying red paint into aircraft engines.
Until 10 July, the Progressive International website featured a page dedicated to Palestine Action that actively encouraged people to join the banned organisation. The page stated: “Palestine Action is a direct action group founded to take on Elbit systems. In its first year of operation, Palestine Action caused over £15 million in losses to Elbit sites alone and shut down the operation for 105 days.”
The site also featured what it called an “Elbit systems target map” highlighting the locations of dozens of factories alongside the caption “Global targets for the campaign to #ShutElbitDown. Follow Palestine Action.” This map linked directly to Palestine Action’s “Underground Manual” which instructed supporters on how to form “cells”, “pick targets” and commit criminal damage.
Both Corbyn and Sultana are members of the Progressive International Council, meaning they bear responsibility for setting the organisation’s strategic direction, according to its own website structure.
The former Labour leader has received thousands of pounds worth of donations from Progressive International for international trips. In October 2022 the campaign group took the politician and his wife to Brazil for a five-day trip costing £3,680.00, according to his Registered Financial Interests. The organisation also funded trips to Washington in January 2023 (£1,452) and Bogotá, Colombia in May 2022 (£1,667.70).
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said in a statement on Monday that she had decided to proscribe the group under the Terrorism Act 2000. The decision followed Palestine Action’s most provocative action to date when activists infiltrated RAF Brize Norton and damaged two Airbus Voyager aircraft used for air-to-air refuelling.
The UK has a deeply flawed and overly broad definition of terrorism which human rights monitors including Amnesty International have been warning about for years.” Amnesty International UK’s Chief Executive Sacha Deshmukh condemned the ban as “an unprecedented legal overreach.
However, the government maintained that Palestine Action’s activities “meet the threshold set out in the statutory tests established under the Terrorism Act 2000”. This will make it a criminal offence to be a member of one of these groups or to invite or recklessly express support for them.
Sultana had been particularly vocal in opposing the proscription. On Tuesday afternoon she declared, “we are all Palestine Action” and shared an emoji of a Palestinian flag in a post on X. The statement was later redacted from Hansard, though it remains visible in the parliamentary video record.
Labour MP Neil Coyle responded sarcastically: “Someone should check where she was the night of the attack at RAF Brize Norton.” Another Labour MP described Sultana as embodying “the very worst of politics” and called for her party membership to be rescinded.
When contacted about the illegal promotion of Palestine Action after its proscription, a Progressive International spokesperson explained that the web pages referencing the group were published in December 2023, pre-dating the ban. They added: “The Progressive International is proud to organise in defence of international law and the inalienable rights of all peoples. The Progressive International opposes the authoritarian constriction of the right to protest, in the United Kingdom and across the world.”
The timing is particularly sensitive given that On Thursday, Corbyn and Member of Parliament Zarah Sultana, who both became independents after leaving Labour, announced the new party, which did not yet have an officially registered name but was temporarily dubbed “Your Party” on its website.
Sultana said that 80,000 people had “signed up” for the party in the first hours, a claim that could not be immediately verified. A YouGov poll suggested 18 per cent of Britons would consider voting for a Corbyn-led party, with support highest among Green Party voters.
Since this, she has been committed to making amends, attending interfaith conferences and travelling to Auschwitz with an anti-fascist delegation. However, Sultana’s past social media posts from 2015, where she implied she would celebrate the deaths of Tony Blair, George W. Bush and Benjamin Netanyahu, continue to haunt her political career.
The Metropolitan Police confirmed they are aware of the allegations but declined to comment on whether an investigation is underway. Legal experts suggest that whilst the website content pre-dated the proscription order, continuing to host it after the ban came into force could potentially constitute an offence.
The controversy highlights the challenges facing Corbyn’s new political venture as it seeks to unite the fractured British left whilst navigating increasingly strict anti-terrorism legislation. With the next general election not expected until 2029, the party has time to establish itself – but early controversies like this could hamper its credibility.
Jeremy Corbyn, Zarah Sultana and the Metropolitan Police have been contacted for comment.
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Image Credit:
Jeremy Corbyn at Stop Trident protest – Photo by Garry Knight, licensed under CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
