A Labour peer and former cabinet minister has said he is “deeply ashamed” at the government’s bid to ban Palestine Action. Lord Hain, who served under both Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, said he would have been labelled a “terrorist” for campaigning against apartheid in South Africa in the 1960s and 70s. Palestine Action describes itself as a “direct action movement committed to ending global participation in Israel’s genocidal and apartheid regime”. Lord Hain spoke out after MPs voted to proscribe the group as a terrorist group on Wednesday night. Home Office minister Dan Jarvis told the Commons: “By implementing this measure, we will remove Palestine Action’s veil of legitimacy, tackle its financial support and degrade its efforts to recruit and radicalise people into committing terrorist activity in its name.” The move came after members of the group allegedly entered Brize Norton RAF base last month and sprayed two aircrafts with red paint. Backing a so-called “regret motion” in the House of Lords condemning the government’s decision, Lord Hain said: “In 1969-70, I was proud to lead a militant campaign of direct action to disrupt all-white, racist South African rugby and cricket tours, and we successfully succeeded in getting them stopped for two decades. “No doubt, I would have been stigmatised as a terrorist today rather than vilified as I was then.” He added: “This government is treating Palestine Action as equivalent to Islamic State or al-Qaida, which is intellectually bankrupt, politically unprincipled and morally wrong. Frankly I am deeply ashamed.”