Enforcing the Palestine Action ban is exhausting, unsustainable and making cops miserable, Met officers, government lawyers and the police federation have told Novara Media.

One officer described feeling “ashamed and sick” when they arrested a disabled person on terror charges. “That feeling won’t leave me anytime soon,” they said. Another told an arrestee it’s “not the work I came into the police to be doing”.

A Police Federation spokesperson, meanwhile, criticised the fact there are “no ‘extra’ officers” to police Palestine Action protests, putting London’s Met police in particular at high risk of burnout. “Officers are emotionally and physically exhausted,” the spokesperson said. “The demand is relentless. And it’s not sustainable.”