Shabana Mahmood criticises author Sally Rooney over Palestine Action comments

Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood has criticised Sally Rooney after the author announced plans to donate earnings from her books to banned protest group Palestine Action.

Ms Rooney, who wrote Normal People, stated she would no longer be able to sell her books in the UK due to her backing of the group.

An open letter signed by various writers, artists and public figures told the Government: "Sally Rooney is a writer, not a terrorist."

Ms Mahmood responded that there was "a world of difference" between profiting from selling books yourself and directing those funds to a proscribed organisation.

Palestine Action was designated a terrorist organisation following a vote in the Commons in July last year.

Consequently, membership of, or support for, the direct-action group became a criminal offence punishable by up to 14 years in prison.

Ms Rooney previously said she would donate her earnings from her books and BBC adaptations of novels to Palestine Action, which has a state goal of “ending global participation in Israel’s genocidal and apartheid regime”.

As a result, Ms Rooney’s publisher, Faber, has determined it cannot sell her novels in Britain.

The Irish author, 35, told the BBC that further publication of her work could constitute a “serious criminal offence”, so she had agreed with her publisher not to continue supplying her books to UK retailers.

Speaking in the Commons on Monday, independent MP Shockat Adam said: “Sally Rooney is a writer and not a terrorist. Yet her books are being withdrawn from shelves up and down the country.

“Under a new Prime Minister, will this Government now reverse, or does the Home Secretary see any author she disagrees with as a terrorist?”

Ms Mahmood said: “He should be much more responsible about the way in which he makes his point in this chamber.

“He will know that there is a world of difference between selling books and enjoying the fruits of your labour, and saying that you will use that money to fund a proscribed organisation.

“That organisation was proscribed through a vote in this house.

“It’s the subject of a legal case at the moment, but all of the appropriate legal safeguards and thresholds in law were followed in that case.”