UK Banks Close Accounts of Pro-Palestine Activists, Including the Mother of a Jailed Protester

Emma Kamio, a small business owner in south Wales, was denied a remortgage on her commercial properties by Lloyds in April. The bank's stated reason, according to Kamio, was "adverse media."

Kamio's daughter, Leona "Ellie" Kamio, a 30-year-old nursery teacher, had already lost her own Lloyds accounts in February 2025 while she sat on remand awaiting trial. She was later convicted of criminal damage over a 2024 raid on an Elbit Systems factory in Filton, Bristol, and sentenced under terrorism guidelines, a sentence four of the six convicted activists, including Kamio, are now seeking to appeal. Her mother's account closure came months after that conviction, and before the UK government proscribed Palestine Action as a "terrorist" organisation.

"It has put me in a difficult position," Emma Kamio told Al Jazeera, describing having to hand over responsibilities in the family business. "I've got one goal and that's to get my girl out of prison."

She is not alone in describing sudden account closures with no stated cause. Broadcaster and former MP George Galloway said last week that Bank of Scotland, part of Lloyds Banking Group, shut his personal account after 39 years without notice, an account into which his parliamentary and state pensions were paid and from which his mortgage, held with the same bank, was drawn. In late June, the left-wing outlet The Canary said Lloyds debanked it despite repeated requests for an explanation. Writer Tariq Ali said this week that an unnamed bank refused to accept a transfer into his account because of his "opinions" on Palestine.

Lloyds did not respond to Al Jazeera's request for comment on any of these cases.

Anas Mustapha of the advocacy group Cage, which was itself debanked more than a decade ago with no explanation given, said the pattern has widened.

"We have reached a point where debanking pro-Palestine voices has become systemic," Mustapha said, adding that activists are "being penalised for their politics, and now the families of people jailed for opposing a genocide."

Anas Altikriti, head of the Cordoba Foundation, said he was flagged as a "terrorist" in a banking database after an unverified claim from the United Arab Emirates that UK authorities never independently confirmed. He has been debanked multiple times.

"This is happening on an industrial scale, to thousands upon thousands of people," Altikriti said, calling debanking a "tool of oppression" and arguing that the word terrorism has become commercialised since 2001. "If this can happen to me, it can happen to anyone."

Al Jazeera reported that more than 2,700 people have been arrested under the Terrorism Act at rallies supporting Palestine Action since its proscription, a figure not independently verified here. The Telegraph has reported more than 450,000 UK bank accounts are closed annually, though the context and timeframe for that figure remain unclear.