Former MP George Galloway and his wife were detained at Gatwick Airport under the Counter-Terrorism and Border Security Act earlier today, Saturday, September 27. The leader of the Workers Party of Britain was returning to the country, via Abu Dhabi, after visiting Moscow, according to reports.

The Workers Party of Britain has labelled the act as “politically motivated intimidation” and took to X to demand the pair’s release. In a statement, they said: "At 11am we were informed by police officers in Gatwick that our party leader George Galloway and his wife have been detained at the airport. The police agreed that they would pass a message to our comrades from us and pass back a reply from them.”

They added: “There was never any chance of an offence. We were obstructed from providing legal support and the conduct of the affair has been designed to intimidate political opponents of the drive towards war with Russia and China.

“Despite repeated attempts to gather further information, and despite repeated calls to the police, we have no further information on their wellbeing, nor on the observation of their rights.

“There is no information on charges or alleged offences. Therefore we may conclude this is politically motivated intimidation.”

The pair were eventually released without charge.

A Metropolitan Police spokesman said Mr Galloway and Putri Gayatri Pertiwi had been detained under schedule three of the Counter Terrorism and Border Security Act 2019, which allows officers to stop, question, search and detain a person at a border area to determine if they have engaged in hostile activity.

They added: "We can confirm that on Saturday, counter-terrorism officers at Gatwick airport stopped a man in his 70s and a woman in her 40s under schedule 3 of the Counter Terrorism and Border Security Act 2019.

“Neither of them were arrested and they were allowed on their way.”

The Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) currently advises against all travel to Russia due to "the high threat of terrorist attack globally affecting UK interests and British nationals, including from groups and individuals who view the UK and British nationals as targets."

It is not a criminal offence to travel to the country although there are no direct flights from the EU to Russia.