MINISTERS were advised that banning Palestine Action “inadvertently enhance” the group’s profile three months before its proscription under terror laws this summer.

A briefing by government officials obtained by the investigative website the Detail also revealed that the Cabinet Office had been paying for monthly surveys of community tensions related to Israel and Palestine.

Today Palestine Action co-founder Huda Ammori, who is leading the judicial review of the proscription, said: “Awareness of the issues and popularity of the group have grown exponentially. The ban has backfired.”

A spokesperson for Defend Our Juries, the group that has been facilitating the Lift The Ban sign-holding protests added: “Exactly as the advisers warned, the government’s overreach in the use of terrorism powers has spectacularly backfired.”

The Home Office said that decisions on proscription are informed by “a robust evidence-based process, with contributions from a wide range of experts from across government, the police and the security service.”