Lord Walney, who is the Government’s ‘independent adviser’ on political violence and disruption, was appointed by Boris Johnson in 2020, after the former Labour MP backed the Conservative leader against Jeremy Corbyn in the 2019 election. He has remained in the post under PM Keir Starmer.

The crossbench peer, who has backed calls for restrictions on protests by pro-Palestine groups and climate campaigners, has extensive links to the defence industry, including as a paid lobbyist. Walney, whose real name is John Woodcock, is “engagement director” of the Purpose Coalition – part of the lobbying firm Crowne Associates.

He is also vice-chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for AUKUS, the security partnership between Australia, United Kingdom and the United States of America.
[…]
Arms manufacturers BAE Systems and military engineering firm Babcock International have contributed £15,000 each to the group’s operations over the past year, while defence industry lobby group ADS provided secretariat services of around £1,500 in the year to July 2024.

Groups such as Palestine Action have often targeted BAE Systems, which has produced F35 military jet parts used by the Israeli state. Palestine Action was named by Lord Walney over a hundred times in his May report calling for harsher anti-protest laws, as a supposed “anarchist, anti-Israel activist group” that the Government should consider banning.
[…]
Lord Walney, whose former constituency of Barrow houses BAE’s nuclear submarine facility, has made several recent appearances at defence industry events – including a webinar co-hosted by ADS Group this June, titled: “UK-Türkiye defsec [defence and security] relations: a UK perspective.” It is unclear if he was paid to attend.

In the webinar, Lord Walney identified himself as both a Member of the House of Lords and a senior advisor to public relations firm Rud Pedersen. The company lists defence and security companies as clients, as well as firms in high-polluting energy and industrial sectors often targeted by group’s like Just Stop Oil and Extinction Rebellion.