Former MP George Galloway and his wife were stopped by counter-terrorism police at Gatwick Airport.
The Workers Party of Britain (WPB) said its leader and Putri Gayatri Pertiwi, the party’s deputy chair, were detained on Saturday morning. They had reportedly returned to the UK from Moscow via Abu Dhabi.
The Metropolitan Police said a man in his 70s and woman in her 40s were stopped by counter-terrorism officers under the Counter Terrorism and Border Security Act, but neither were arrested and they were “allowed on their way”.
In a statement, Galloway’s party condemned what it described as “politically motivated intimidation” and said freedom of speech is lying “on the scrap heap”.
Police said the stops were made under schedule 3 to the Counter-Terrorism and Border Security Act 2019.
This allows an officer to stop, question, search and detain a person at a port or the border area in the UK to determine if they have engaged in hostile activity.
Those being detained can be required to provide information including passwords to devices. It is not known whether this was requested in this instance.
A Met Police spokesman said: “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 Workers Party of Britain said it was informed Galloway and his wife had been detained at Gatwick by police on Saturday morning.
In a later statement on X it said Galloway, 71, and his 40-year-old wife had been released without charge.
It 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.”
Galloway was a Labour MP until 2003, before sitting in the Commons as an independent and Respect Party MP for three constituencies between 2003 and 2015.
In March 2024 he became the WPB’s first MP, after winning a by-election in Rochdale, before losing it in that year’s general election.