The government has unveiled plans to ban public bodies from launching their own boycotting campaigns.
 
The planned reform would seek to “ensure a coherent approach to foreign relations” by stopping public bodies from “imposing their own approach or views” through boycotts, divestments and sanctions. 
 
The measure was included in the Queen’s Speech, an address read by the monarch ahead of a new session in Parliament to set out the legislative programme for the coming year. 
 
A similar ban was welcomed by Jewish groups in 2019 when it was included in the Queen’s Speech. 
 
Board of Deputies President Marie van der Zyl said at the time that boycotts, divestments and sanctions were “divisive” and did “nothing to build peace in the Middle East.”
 
Palestinian activists won an appeal last year against a ban on local Government pension schemes pursuing “policies that are contrary to UK foreign policy or UK defence polices.”