The Home Secretary has decided to proscribe Palestine Action and will lay an order before Parliament next week to make membership and support for the protest group illegal. Yvette Cooper confirmed the move after Palestine Action vandalised two planes inside RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire on Friday.

The incident is being investigated by counter-terror police. The ban under terror laws will make it a criminal offence to belong to or support the group, and will be punishable by up to 14 years in prison.

A draft order will be laid in Parliament next Monday.

Ms Cooper said in a written ministerial statement: "The disgraceful attack on Brize Norton in the early hours of the morning on Friday 20 June is the latest in a long history of unacceptable criminal damage committed by Palestine Action.

"The UK's defence enterprise is vital to the nation's national security and this Government will not tolerate those that put that security at risk."