Sally Rooney books to stop being supplied in UK as authors and MP challenge proscription

The Irish novelist Sally Rooney will no longer have new books supplied to UK booksellers after she said that fulfilling contracts to publish her work in the UK could amount to a serious criminal offence because of her support for Palestine Action. Her publisher Faber has said it cannot legally pass her UK earnings to her under the legislation, so it cannot supply her works here. Ebooks have already been removed. Copies already in shops, including Waterstones, will remain on sale because the change affects new stock.

Rooney, best known for Normal People, has sold about 2.3 million books in the UK and more than six million worldwide. She has been a vocal supporter of Palestine Action, a direct action protest group that the UK government proscribed as a terrorist organisation in July 2025. The group is not proscribed in the Republic of Ireland, where Rooney lives. She previously said she would continue to donate proceeds from her books to the group and cancelled a trip to the UK for fear of arrest. She said she was wholly prepared to accept the consequences. Thousands of people have been arrested for supporting the group.

Faber called the situation an unconscionable one for a publisher. Rooney said the decision with Faber was made with her agreement. The Home Office said the proscription followed a rigorous, evidence-based process endorsed by Parliament. It pointed to the Court of Appeal, which it said found that Palestine Action carried out acts of terrorism, celebrated those who took part and promoted violence. A legal challenge to the proscription is due before the Supreme Court next month.

Palestine Action co-founder Huda Ammori said Rooney being unable to publish her work in the UK marked a new low in an escalating assault on free speech and exposed the chilling consequences of an authoritarian law. The Green Party leader Zack Polanski criticised the move, saying Labour had banned books by one of the most celebrated authors of recent times and calling the law authoritarian and ludicrous. Supporters published an open letter in the New Statesman signed by leading authors, artists and public figures. It said: 'Sally Rooney is a writer, not a terrorist.'

At Prime Minister's Questions, SDLP leader Claire Hanna asked Keir Starmer to review the proscription. She said it had extraordinary consequences for freedom of expression and that constituents faced terror charges over peaceful protest. Starmer replied that the proscription followed a rigorous, evidence-based process endorsed by Parliament and that the matter was a live legal case, so he would not comment further.

In a studio discussion, novelist Irvine Welsh, a signatory of the open letter, argued that books should not be banned and that the legislation had produced a crazy secondary impact. He said Palestine Action members were not terrorists and that trespass and criminal damage laws were enough. Another panellist said Rooney was free to support the Palestinian cause and could donate to other organisations, but had chosen to support a proscribed group. A further panellist said the outcome was predictable and warned that proscription can carry severe consequences for anyone seen as sympathetic to a banned group.

Some speakers stressed that Rooney's books have not been banned. Existing copies can still be sold, and the dispute is over new supply and royalties. The row comes as the courts prepare to examine the proscription of Palestine Action, and it has become a focus for arguments about free expression, terrorism legislation and the war in Gaza.