Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free
Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.
A man has been arrested on suspicion of arson in connection with a series of fires including at Sir Keir Starmer’s family home and another property linked to the prime minister.
The Metropolitan Police said a 21-year-old was arrested in the early hours of Tuesday on suspicion of arson with intent to endanger life.
In a statement, the Met said the arrest related to the fire at the four-bedroom house in Kentish Town in the early hours of Monday, as well as a car that caught fire in recent days on the same street and a blaze at an office building that has a connection to Starmer in the N7 postcode.
The fire at the Starmer family home, which the prime minister rented out to tenants after moving to 10 Downing Street in July last year, caused damage to the property’s entrance.
In the statement, the Met said: “As a precaution and due to the property having previous connections with a high-profile public figure, officers from the Met’s Counter Terrorism Command are leading the investigation into this fire. Enquiries are ongoing to establish what caused it.
“The investigation team are also considering two other incidents — a vehicle fire in NW5 on Thursday 8 May and a fire at the entrance of a property in N7 on Sunday 11 May — and are investigating whether they may be linked to the fire in NW5 on 12 May.”
The Met added that all three fires “are being treated as suspicious at this time”.
The Met cautioned on Monday evening that it was not yet clear whether the three fires were connected but counterterrorism police were pursuing that as a line of inquiry.
Police did not believe the fire at Starmer’s home was started by an explosive device, but were continuing to investigate the source of the blaze, one person familiar with the investigation added.
The three fires with potential links to Starmer are likely to heighten concerns inside the government about a co-ordinated campaign against the prime minister.
The Met did not immediately say on Tuesday whether they expected further arrests to follow.
The involvement of counterterrorism officers, who are specialists in discerning the nature of a possible attack, is common when a high-profile property is the subject of fire damage.
Starmer’s home has been targeted by protesters in the past, including in relation to the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.
The UK faces several threats, and Ken McCallum, head of MI5, warned in October that Russian spies were on a “mission to generate mayhem” on Britain’s streets and that Iran was fomenting lethal plots at “an unprecedented pace and scale”.
In June last year, three pro-Palestinian protesters were found guilty of public order offences after demonstrating outside Starmer’s north London home.
