Police reviewing social media post by writer Sarah Helm, wife of Burnham’s National Security Adviser Jonathan Powell.
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 “terrorist” organisation.
“God help us authors who support Palestine and Palestine Action,” Sarah Helm, a writer who is married to Powell – Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s national security adviser – wrote on X on Thursday.
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She was responding to a post defending Irish novelist Sally Rooney, 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.
A Metropolitan Police spokesperson on Friday said Helm’s post is “being assessed to determine whether any further police investigation may be required”.
A government spokesperson cited by the Reuters news agency said the views expressed in Helm’s post “are held by an individual who does not represent the government in any capacity”.
‘Absurdly authoritarian ban’
UK-based activist group Defend Our Juries defended Helm for defying what it called an “absurdly authoritarian ban on Palestine Action”.
“We know of 36 people who have been arrested and had their homes raided for similarly expressing support for Palestine Action on social media,” said a spokesperson for the group.
“We hope Sarah will not face the same treatment for standing up for free speech and Palestinian lives.”
The UK government outlawed Palestine Action 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’s genocidal war on Gaza. Being a member or a supporter is punishable by up to 14 years in prison.
Since the ban went into effect, police have arrested 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.
Palestine Action has contested its proscription, but the Court of Appeal upheld it in June.
The UK’s new Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband last month said the government was “looking at” the Palestine Action ban, adding that he did not believe mass arrests resulting from its proscription were “anyone’s intent”.