Starmer callls for 'swift and visible' criminal justice response to Golders Green terror attack
PM says there is a 'wider duty on all of us' to respond to antisemitic attacks
Sir Keir Starmer has said the criminal justice response to the suspected terror attack in north London must be “swift, agile and visible” as extra funding was announced to increase security for Jewish communities.
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The Prime Minister said the Government and agencies must “come together very quickly” to take the necessary action after the double stabbing in Golders Green on Wednesday.
Police across the country have stepped up patrols in response to the attack that saw two Jewish men – 34-year-old Shloime Rand and 76-year-old Moshe Ben Baila, named locally as Moshe Shine – taken to hospital after being stabbed.
A 45-year-old man, said by police to be a Somali-born British national, was arrested following the attack.
The suspect had previously been reported to the Government’s Prevent counter-extremism programme, the Metropolitan Police confirmed today.
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said the man came to the UK “lawfully as a child” in the 1990s.
Speaking at a roundtable discussion with representatives including Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley in Downing Street on Thursday, the Prime Minister said: “I do think there’s a wider duty on all of us in terms of confidence in the criminal justice system to be able to deal with appalling attacks like this, to show that it can act in a swift, agile and visible way.
Metropolitan Police commissioner Sir Mark Rowley will appear on LBC's Nick Ferrari at Breakfast on Friday, Live from 7am.
“I look forward to a discussion with you as to how we make that happen.”
Meanwhile, a further £25 million will be invested to boost police patrols and protections around synagogues, schools and community centres, taking the total commitment this year to £58 million.
Legislation creating proscription-like powers to pursue people and organisations acting on behalf of malign state-sponsored groups will also be “fast-tracked” in the coming weeks, ministers have said in the wake of the attack.
The plans will be included in the King’s Speech setting out the Government’s legislative agenda for the coming parliamentary session on May 13, LBC understands.
The stabbings are the latest in a series of attacks on Jewish sites over recent weeks and have prompted calls for urgent action and accusations the Government has not done enough to tackle antisemitism.
Speaking to LBC's Nick Ferrari at Breakfast, Ms Mahmood said there is a "real problem with antisemitism in this country" and conceded that Ministers are "trying to get control”.
"It's something I've been talking about ever since I became the Home Secretary," she told Nick.
The Home Secretary also signalled she would consider banning the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), an Iranian military group, as she faced questions about the new laws.
She told LBC: "I think a national emergency would mean that we suspend elements of our democracy. I don't think we are there yet," she insisted."I think we need to strike a better balance between the freedom to protest but also the freedom of people to be able to go about business.
"If the marches continue, they do so with greater police powers that have just hit the statute books to enable the police to place greater conditions on repeat protests, to ban face coverings, and also to make sure that those conditions are appropriate so that people can continue to visit synagogues and go about their business.”
Speaking from his hostpital bed on Wednesday night, Mr Rand, the younger victim of Wednesday’s attack, said: “People are really afraid, people are uncomfortable walking in the streets.
“People are blaming obviously the Government. You know they aren’t doing anything about what’s going on for the past few months,” he told ITV.
Chief Rabbi Sir Ephraim Mirvis called for “meaningful action” to tackle the “root causes” of antisemitism while the Board of Deputies of British Jews said antisemitism must be “confronted, punished and deterred with the full force of the state”.
Sir Keir vowed that the Government would address the causes of antisemitism ahead of the meeting with criminal justice agencies on Thursday to discuss the attack and said he would visit Golders Green “as soon as possible”.
But the Prime Minister is facing pressure to go further, including calls to ban pro-Palestinian marches.
Jonathan Hall, the independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, said it was currently “impossible” for such marches not to “incubate” antisemitism.
Describing recent attacks on Jews as a “massive national security emergency”, he called for a “moratorium” on pro-Palestinian marches.
Ms Mahmood rejected this characterisation, telling BBC Breakfast: “I think the phrase ‘national emergency’ has particular connotations.
“It means that for a period, you change your democracy, and you disapply some elements of our democratic society. I don’t believe this is where we are today.
“But for me this is an absolutely pressing priority. It is an emergency for me as Home Secretary to respond to.”
But Mr Hall’s comments were echoed by the chief rabbi, who said “hate marches” together with “purposeful anti-Israel demonisation” had contributed to “a tone of antisemitism” in the UK.
Opposition politicians have also joined calls to ban the marches, with Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch saying it was “quite clear they are used as a cover for violence and intimidation against Jews”.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s deputy foreign minister Sharren Haskel told Jews to leave the UK.
“I have a message to the Jewish community: immigrate to Israel. Come to a place where we can actually protect you, or you can protect yourself,” she said on GB News, as she accused the UK Government of not doing “enough in order to protect and defend” that community.
Meanwhile, police forces across the country said they would step up patrols in Jewish areas in response to Wednesday’s attack.
Greater Manchester Police said it had deployed extra officers around the city, with a “high-visibility presence within our Jewish communities in north Manchester, Bury and Salford”.
West Yorkshire Police and Thames Valley Police both said they would increase patrols to “provide additional reassurance”.
In London, counter-terrorism officers investigating the attack said they were also searching an address in the south-east of the city after it was reported the suspect had been involved in a prior “altercation” with another person.
A joint statement from Detective Chief Superintendent Luke Williams, the regional basic command unit commander, and Barnet Council chief executive Cath Shaw said “significant number of officers” would be in the area to support the investigation.
“This gives police officers temporary powers to stop and search people in the area without needing specific suspicion, where there is a risk of serious violence,” the statement said.
“This is a preventative measure designed to deter further criminality. We were already deploying an increased number of counter-terrorism response vehicles to respond to suspicious activity.”
They said there would be an “increased policing presence in and around schools, transport hubs, high footfall areas and faith venues”.