BARCLAYS urged the High Court to ignore thousands of pro-Palestine objections to its takeover bid for Tesco Bank today.

More than 8,500 people wrote to the court to formally oppose the £600 million transfer, the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) said.

Protesters chanting “Stop Arming Israel” outside the court vowed to extend their existing boycott of Barclays – over its links to companies profiting from the Gaza genocide – to Tesco if the deal went through.

Martin Moore KC, representing the banks, asked the High Court to ignore thousands of people who have raised concerns over the transfer of some of Tesco Bank’s services to Britain’s arm of Barclays “over the situation in Gaza.”

He said in written submissions that 2,248 emails resulting from an “online campaign” had been received “from persons not customers of Tesco Personal Finance” opposing the scheme, which he claimed the court could “safely ignore.”

There had been 562 “objections” and 75 “complaints” from customers about the scheme, amounting to 0.014 per cent of some 4.1 million credit card, personal loans, savings and current accounts that would be affected, he added.

PSC director Ben Jamal said: “We will not let Barclays whitewash its role in financing the arms industry that Israel is using to slaughter Palestinians.

“By seeking to buy Tesco Bank, Barclays aims to hide its unconscionable business model under another brand name, just as it attempts to launder its reputation through cultural and sports sponsorship.

“It won’t wash with us. We will be outside the High Court protesting and inside the court objecting to this terrible deal.

“And if it does go through, we’ll be extending our boycott campaign to Tesco Bank.

“For millions of people there can be no business as usual with companies that are complicit in Israel’s genocide in Gaza.”

Representatives of PSC, Campaign Against Arms Trade and War on Want applied to raise the objections over “Barclays deep financial ties to the ongoing genocide against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip” during the proceedings.

Barclays holds more than £2 billion in shares and provides £6.1bn in financing to nine companies whose weapons, components, and military technology are being used by Israel in its attacks on Palestinians, research by the campaign groups has found.

The deal would see Barclays Bank UK continue to operate the business under the Tesco Bank brand for at least 10 years.