POLICE were left red-faced after wrongly arresting a man for wearing a “Plasticine Action” T-shirt at a Westminster rally against the banning of Palestine Action under anti-terror laws.

Miles Pickering was taken into custody on suspicion of supporting the proscribed group at the August 9 pro-Palestinian rally in Parliament Square, where some 532 protesters were detained.

His garment was designed to mimic the logo of the banned group, but inside the letter O was an image of the plasticine character Morph and the text underneath the logo read: “We oppose AI-generated animation.”

The Brighton-based engineer told the Guardian how an officer took one look at his T-shirt and said: “Right, you’re nicked,” before taking him to Scotland Yard.

The arresting officer later had to tell senior police that he couldn’t detain Mr Pickering under section 12 of the Terrorism Act “because he hasn’t got Palestine Action written on him. He’s got Plasticine Action written on him.”

Mr Pickering said that five minutes later, the officer told him: “I’ve got good news and I’ve got bad news.”

The “good news” was that he was dearresting Mr Pickering, while the “bad” was: ‘It’s going to be really embarrassing for me’.”

Mr Pickering is now selling copies of the T-shirt to raise money for the Medical Aid for Palestinians charity.

The Metropolitan Police claimed that a scarf had partially obscured the slogan on Mr Pickering’s T-shirt at the time of his arrest.

Police Scotland confirmed today that no arrests had been made at a pro-Palestinian demonstration in Glasgow on Saturday after a video was posted online showing a man wearing a Plasticine Action T-shirt being spoken to by officers in the city’s Saltmarket.