Concerns have been raised after the judge who was expected to hear a legal challenge to the ban on Palestine Action was removed from the case at the last minute without explanation.

Mr Justice Chamberlain had granted permission for the judicial review and said that he would preside over the trial but it has emerged that a panel of three different judges will instead hear the case, which is due to start on Wednesday.

It is unusual for a judge to be replaced – as Chamberlain was last Wednesday – so close to the hearing date, although it also happened to him earlier this year in the legal challenge to the UK’s sale of F-35 aircraft parts to Israel, which he had also granted permission for .

Asked why he had been taken off the Palestine Action case, the Ministry of Justice referred th

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