Police assess Palestine Action post by national security adviser’s wife

The Metropolitan Police is assessing an X post by author Sarah Helm, the wife of UK national security adviser Jonathan Powell, to decide whether further investigation is needed. The post referred to Palestine Action, which remains banned under UK terrorism law; the police statement does not say an investigation has been opened. [1]

Helm wrote: “God help us authors who support Palestine and Palestine Action. Sounds like Adam would have all our books swept off the shelves in a jiffy.” She was responding to remarks by broadcaster Adam Boulton amid a discussion about novelist Sally Rooney’s books. Rooney has said she intends to use her royalties to support Palestine Action, and her novels will no longer be supplied to UK booksellers. [4] [1]

A Metropolitan Police spokesperson said on Friday that the post was “in the process of being assessed to determine whether any further police investigation may be required”. [1]

Under Home Office guidance on the Terrorism Act 2000, expressing an opinion supportive of a proscribed organisation can be an offence if the speaker is reckless as to whether it will encourage someone addressed by the expression to support that organisation. That legal test does not, by itself, establish whether Helm’s post is an offence. [2]

Downing Street said Helm “does not represent the government in any capacity”. The Campaign Against Antisemitism called for a police investigation and urged Powell to distance himself from her words. Green Party leader Zack Polanski defended Helm and called for the ban to be lifted. None of those responses establishes Powell’s views. [1]

Palestine Action has been proscribed since July 2025. A lower court ruled against the ban, but the Court of Appeal reversed that decision. The Supreme Court has listed a further appeal for 4 and 5 November; the ban remains in force while that challenge is pending. [3]