Metropolitan Police arrested 86 protesters outside HMP Wormwood Scrubs in west London on the evening of January 25, 2026, after demonstrators gathered at the prison gates in support of Umer Khalid — a Palestine Action activist who had been on a hunger strike and, by the time of the protest, had moved to refusing water as well. Prisoners for Palestine, the organization supporting him, said Khalid had “days left to live.”

Police said the 86 were arrested “on suspicion of aggravated trespass” after protesters refused to leave prison property. The demonstration was organized in response to Khalid’s condition and his continued detention under the British government’s ban on Palestine Action — a ban the High Court would rule unlawful less than three weeks later.

Khalid was among the Palestine Action activists imprisoned under the government’s July 2025 proscription of the organization as a terrorist group — a designation that placed it alongside al-Qaeda and Hamas and made membership or expressions of support punishable by up to 14 years in prison. In the months following the ban, more than 2,700 people were arrested, including hundreds charged under terrorism legislation for holding signs or attending demonstrations. Multiple activists went on hunger strike inside British prisons to protest their detention.

The protest outside Wormwood Scrubs, like the hunger strikes inside, reflects the human cost of the British government’s decision to apply counter-terrorism powers to a political protest movement. The people arrested outside the prison gate were not accused of any violence. They were accused of being present on prison grounds in support of someone the government had classified as a terrorist for protesting Israel’s conduct in Gaza.

Umer Khalid survived. The High Court ruling on February 13 called the ban unlawful. The government said it would appeal. Many of the 2,700 people arrested between the ban and the ruling remain in legal limbo.