Palestine Action supporters descend on London and clash with police as protest ban imposed

In a statement the Met Police said: "Public Order Act conditions have been imposed on the protest in support of Palestine Action due to take place tomorrow. The protest must not begin before midday and must end by 3pm."

Met Police also included a map of the exclusion zone and warned that the protest cannot take place within the area.

Following the announcement of the exclusion zone, the protest was moved to Trafalgar Square, where hundreds of people have gathered.

Following a number of arrests at the protest, Palestine Action wrote on social: "Draconian response by the police at the protest in solidarity with Palestine Action.

"They want to ban us, they banned our protest at parliament and now they attack us. The people will not be intimidated. WE ARE ALL PALESTINE ACTION."

The protest came shortly before Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said she would proscribe Palestine Action as a terrorist organisation next Monday after two of the group's activists infiltrated RAF Brize Norton and damaged two Voyager aircraft.

The banning of Palestine Action will put the organisation on par with Hamas, al-Qaeda and Isis.

Last night, Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley said he was "shocked and frustrated" at the group's plans to protest.

He said: "I'm sure many people will be as shocked and frustrated as I am to see a protest taking place tomorrow in support of Palestine Action.

"This is an organised extremist criminal group, whose proscription as terrorists is being actively considered.

"Members are alleged to have caused millions of pounds of criminal damage, assaulted a police officer with a sledgehammer, and last week claimed responsibility for breaking into an airbase and damaging aircraft."

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS

• 'Nonsense!' Furious row breaks out on GB News after Dawn Neesom says 'questions must be answered'
• Pro-Palestine groups told 'go to Gaza' in GB News rant as guest rages 'don't infest our streets with sectarianism'
• Charlie Peters recalls shambolic security at RAF Brize Norton during GB News visit after Palestine Action stunt

Around 200 protesters, with some wearing black face coverings, gathered Trafalgar Square.

Placards read: "Britain, US, Israel are terrorists... Hands off Palestine Action".

Others stated: "Defend the right to protest. Drop the charges."

Last week Palestine Action posted a video of their infiltration of RAF Brize Norton on Friday morning, boasting they "escaped undetected" following the raid.

Activists sprayed red paint and took crowbars to two military aircraft.

RAF sources said all aircraft would undergo full engineering checks and said the damage appeared superficial.

Pro-Palestine protesters break into RAF base and damage two military aircrafts

Counter terrorism police are investigating the break-in alongside Thames Valley Police and the Ministry of Defence.

Defence Secretary John Healey said: "The vandalism of RAF planes is totally unacceptable. I am really disturbed that this happened and have ordered an investigation and a review of wider security at our bases."

Sir Keir Starmer also weighed in on the act of vandalism at the Oxfordshire base, which has acted as one of Britain's most strategically important military airfields for nearly 80 years, branding it "disgraceful".

Following the incident, it was discovered the airfield, which regularly hosts members of the Royal Family and senior politicians on international flights, was protected by little more than a six-foot wooden fence, not dissimilar to that found in a home garden.

Footage posted online by Palestine Action showed two people entering the base in darkness, with one riding an electric scooter up to an Airbus Voyager aircraft.

They then used "repurposed fire extinguishers to spray red paint into the turbine engines".

Justin Bronk, a senior research fellow at think tank Rusi, described the airfield invasion as "a fairly catastrophic failure of force protection".

"The challenge of defending air bases from unconventional attacks is a cross-departmental problem, but one that needs to be urgently looked at," he told The i Paper.

He added: "Questions will be asked. I would suggest it's probably much more important to look at the systemic failures and how to address them, rather than to try and look for a scapegoat."

An ex-guard at an overseas RAF base told the same publication that security was "lax and hugely out of date", and highlighted at one point a local farmer had been given a key to a fence next to the runway "in case he wanted to herd his livestock through".

Following the incident, a Palestine Action spokesperson stated: "Despite publicly condemning the Israeli Government, Britain continues to send military cargo, fly spy planes over Gaza and refuel US/Israeli fighter jets.

"Britain isn't just complicit, it's an active participant in the Gaza genocide and war crimes across the Middle East.

"By decommissioning two military planes, Palestine Action have directly intervened to break the chains of oppression."