On Friday 14 February, the Home Office finally announced the sacking of Lord Walney (John Woodcock) and the axing of his role as ‘Independent Adviser on Political Violence and Disruption’.
Lord Walney: gone but not forgotten
Lord Walney’s responsibilities will be transferred to a new expanded Commissioner for Counter-Extremism role, as part of a wider reorganisation of how protest and extremism are monitored within the Home Office.
His departure raises further questions about the mass jailing of political opponents of the oil and arms industries he represents. Since his May 2024 report, which called for members of Just Stop Oil and Palestine Action to be treated as organised criminals, more than 50 have been imprisoned, some for up to five years.
Meanwhile the outcome of the Court of Appeal hearing into 16 members of Just Stop Oil, jailed for a combined 41 years in the months following Walney’s report last May, is expected within weeks.
A spokesperson for the Free Political Prisoners campaign, which has been calling for Lord Walney’s sacking since September, said:
It was a grave error of judgement on the part of this Government to allow an oil and arms industry lobbyist to drive the agenda on silencing those holding those same industries to account. Many peaceful people are filling our overcrowded prisons as a result.
This doesn’t end with Walney’s sacking. The immense damage he has done to democratic freedoms must be repaired. Those silenced and jailed on his recommendations must be freed. The corrupting influence of other industry lobbyists on the courts must be stopped.
A toxic tenure
Lord Walney (real name, ‘John Woodcock’) resigned from the Labour Party in 2018 amid allegations of sexual misconduct which have still not been investigated.
In 2020, Boris Johnson appointed him to the House of Lords, and gave him the role of ‘Independent Adviser on Political Violence and Disruption’.
He used that role to obtain the following paid positions:
- Chair of the Purpose Defence Coalition, members of which include Leonardo, one of the world’s largest arms manufacturers, with “extensive links” to Israel’s military.
- Adviser to lobbyist Rud Pederson, clients of which include the oil and gas giant, Glencore.
- Adviser to the Purpose Business Coalition, members of which include fossil fuel giant BP.
The terms of his engagement required him to disclose any conflicts of interest directly to the Home Office, but it is unclear whether he did so.
In May 2024 Lord Walney published a report, falsely presented to the public and parliament as ‘independent’, which called for groups such as Palestine Action and Just Stop Oil to be treated as organised criminals. He also suggested that jury acquittals in the trials of such cases were a problem that needed to be addressed.
The surprise was not that Lord Walney acted in his clients’ interests, but rather that the Labour government continued to present him to the public as ‘independent’ for so long, encouraging judges to act on his recommendations.
Featured image via the Canary
