LONDON, 22 Dec. - (ANA) - The Prisoners for Palestine collective has rejected claims by the Leader of the House of Commons, Sir Alan Campbell, and prisons minister Lord James Timpson that Palestine Action prisoners are in "safe hands", citing serious concerns over their treatment at HMP Bronzefield.

 

The group said the assurances ignore the prison's long and controversial record, as well as the deteriorating health of three Palestine Action activists currently held there on remand.

 

Qesser Zuhrah, Amy Gardiner-Gibson and Jon Cink are being held at the Surrey prison over Palestine Action-related offences, including alleged break-ins and damage at Israeli weapons manufacturer Elbit Systems.

 

Zuhrah and Gardiner-Gibson have now entered their 50th day on hunger strike and have been described by doctors as "nearing death".

 

Prisoners for Palestine has repeatedly raised alarm over conditions at HMP Bronzefield. Earlier this week, protesters gathered outside the prison demanding that an ambulance be sent for Zuhrah after her health had sharply deteriorated. The ambulance reportedly took 12 hours to arrive.

 

The collective has also documented allegations of systemic neglect and Islamophobic incidents inside the prison.

 

Campbell defended the government’s position during Thursday's Christmas adjournment debate, saying it was "not trying to break the bodies" of the Palestine Action prisoners, despite warnings from doctors that the hunger strikers had reached a critical stage. His comments followed remarks by independent MP for Blackburn Adnan Hussain, who said: "Remand is not punishment. It is not meant to break bodies or silence dissent."

 

Hussain said conditions at HMP Bronzefield were "so severe that these young people feel driven to risk death simply to be heard".

 

Campbell rejected the allegations, saying they "couldn’t be further from the truth" and insisting that prisoners’ welfare is "absolutely central" to the prison service and ministers. Lord Timpson also claimed that existing procedures "are well-established and work very well".

 

Prisoners for Palestine strongly disputed those claims. "This pattern of neglect extends beyond the walls of HMP Bronzefield and ends at the hands of the British state, which appears indifferent to whether prisoners live or die," the group said in a statement on Saturday.

 

"As the government dismisses the severity of the conditions by pointing to supposedly 'robust' processes, we remind them that these same processes led to hunger strikers being denied vital medical observations, subjected to physical force and, most dangerously, refused emergency medical care on multiple occasions," the statement added.

 

Zuhrah's trial has been scheduled for April 2026, despite the standard pre-trial custody limit in Britain being six months. She denies all charges.

 

 

 

 

HMP Bronzefield is privately run by Sodexo, a multinational facilities management company that has faced repeated criticism over prison conditions.

 

In 2013, a Sodexo subsidiary was found to have subjected a female prisoner at Bronzefield to "cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment". In 2016, Natasha Chin died in her cell after vomiting for nine hours without receiving medical attention, less than 36 hours after arriving at the prison.

 

In 2019, Sodexo was criticised after prisoner Rianna Cleary gave birth alone in her cell without medical assistance, biting through her own umbilical cord. Her baby later died.

 

Other prisoners, including Tracey Dyke and Toni Asik, were also found dead within days of each other following incidents linked to neglect and mistreatment.

 

Sodexo has faced similar criticism at other facilities, including HMP Peterborough, where another Palestine Action prisoner, Teuta Hoxha, is currently held. - (ANA) -

 

AB/ANA/22 December 2025 - - -