Andreas Malm, a climate academic and author of How to Blow Up a Pipeline, was barred from entering the UK before he could speak alongside a co-founder of banned group Palestine Action.
Malm was told by immigration officials that his presence in the UK “may not be considered conducive to the public good”. He called the decision “scandalous” and urged the government to reconsider.
Malm, an associate professor of human ecology at Lund University in Sweden, was scheduled to headline a conference next week by Tribune magazine on “Washington’s global reign of terror and Britain’s role in empowering it.”
He was to speak alongside Huda Ammori, co-founder of Palestine Action. They were due to discuss the impact of the ban, including its effect on author Sally Rooney, who withdrew her books from sale in the UK due to her support of the group.
Rooney said the decision to ban Malm from the UK was a “sad and frightening act of cultural self-harm”.
The Tribune event was timed to coincide with the start of a challenge to the ban in the Supreme Court next Wednesday. While in London, Malm was also due to be interviewed for BBC Radio 4’s Radical With Gabriel Gatehouse.
Malm said: “I am deeply dismayed by this sudden ban on travel to the UK. I have been going to the UK for decades – it is where I did my archival research for my doctoral dissertation, lectured at dozens of universities and attended even more conferences.”
Malm urged the government to think again. He said: “There was a sense that the Burnham government had a little more respect for fundamental notions of free speech and other democratic rights. I am calling for this decision to be reversed.”
The Interior Ministry said it did not discuss individual cases.
Rooney said: “Andreas Malm is one of the brightest and most influential intellectuals working in Europe today. The British government’s refusal of him entry to Britain is not only an outrageous attack on a respected climate expert, but a sad and frightening act of cultural self-harm.”
Earlier this year, left-wing American commentators Cenk Uygur and Hasan Piker were also barred from the UK on the grounds that their presence in the UK “may not be conducive to the public good”.
Tribune editor Oliver Eagleton said: “Ironically, Andreas was coming to London to speak at our event about the unprecedented attacks on free speech triggered by the banning of Palestine Action, including the effective banning of Sally Rooney’s books, but he has now been banned himself.
“He is being censored for speaking out against censorship, in a truly Orwellian way. It is shameful that Andy Burnham’s government is continuing the authoritarian excess we saw under Keir Starmer, and in this new dystopian reality it is now common in Britain for authors and academics to be treated like terrorists for supporting Palestinians facing genocide and the rights of people protesting against it.”
Malm’s books have won international awards and inspired many people to take action for environmental justice and Palestinian rights. How to Blow Up a Pipeline inspired a film of the same name. He regularly traveled to Britain to lecture at universities including Oxford, King’s College London and Cambridge.
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