A PRO-TRANS campaign group should be proscribed as a terrorist organisation, the former UK Government adviser who called for a ban on Palestine Action has said.
John Woodcock – a former Labour MP who has called himself “Baron Walney” since entering the House of Lords in 2020 – has said that the trans direct action group Bash Back should be banned under terror laws.
Bash Back describes itself as a “trans-led direct action project focused on total transgender liberation” that does “not condone causing physical harm to any human being”.
The group has previously claimed responsibility for vandalising the office of now-Defence Secretary Wes Streeting in the summer of 2025. As health secretary in December 2024, Streeting had made a UK‑wide ban on puberty‑blocker prescriptions for young trans people indefinite.
In January 2026, Bash Back published a list of donors to the Free Speech Union (FSU) which it said had been obtained through hacking.
Both the FSU and Streeting were explicitly named in an operating guide produced by Bash Back which urged direct action against “transphobic” targets.
Under a photograph of Streeting’s office vandalised, the group wrote: “The oppression of trans people is systemic, and thus is propagated from the top down. Ensure your target is linked directly to transphobia and that they have enough power to effect change under pressure.
“Examples of good targets include offices of transphobic MPs and organisations (e.g. Sex Matters, the EHRC, Free Speech Union (FSU)), party conferences of parties that have explicitly transphobic parties, and the property of transphobic public ‘intellectuals’.
“Ensure your target can be hit repeatedly until they desist from their activities.”
Writing in The Times, Woodcock said that Bash Back “deserves far more serious attention than it has so far received” and that “on the evidence already in the public domain, there is a serious case to answer” about whether it qualifies as a terrorist organisation.
He wrote: “Bash Back has openly embraced many of the methods that made Palestine Action so disruptive. Its guide concedes that its tactics will be ‘rarely legal’, and urges activists to form independent local cells, identify a target and ensure it can be hit repeatedly until it desists. It also offers practical advice on carrying out attacks and evading detection afterwards.”
“It is time for the government to act against those who have crossed the line from protest into coercion, before it is too late,” he added.
Woodcock further drew a connection between Bash Back and the murder of Reform politician Ann Widdecombe, who was allegedly hit 21 times with a hammer.
The former Labour MP said that while he would not want to prejudice any trial, it was “a fair observation” that Bash Back had not withdrawn any of its material in the wake of the killing.
“Not one image of masked, hammer-wielding activists. Not the guide instructing supporters to select political targets and strike them until they desist,” he said.
“An organisation genuinely committed to non-violence, watching the country absorb the killing of a public figure in her own home, would have paused. This one did not.”
In a statement posted on social media, Bash Back said: “We completely reject the idea that we are a ‘terrorist’ group. We are a non-violent direct action group that demands the total liberation of trans people, and opposes the rising tide of anti-trans bigotry."
It added: "Woodcock was a Labour MP, but he was suspended in 2018 after being accused of sexual harassment. While the investigation into this was ongoing, he resigned from Labour, ending the investigation. He was then given a peerage and a new job by the Conservatives.
"Woodcock was sacked in 2025 after Labour abolished his role, but he continues to throw his weight around in the House of Lords."
A Home Office spokesman said: “While the right to protest is fundamental to our democracy, this cannot cross the line into intimidation, unlawful or violent behaviour.
“Those doing so will face the full force of the law.”
