UK police probing possible arson at office of pro-Israel MP

Fire erupted at Mike Freer’s office on Christmas Eve; parliamentarian representing large Orthodox Jewish community says it is ‘one of the many threats’ he has faced

By ToI Staff 26 December 2023, 11:39 am

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Building which houses Tory MP Mike Freer's constituency office, damaged by suspected arson on Christmas Eve. Screen capture: Sky News. Used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law.

London’s Metropolitan Police announced Monday it was investigating a suspected arson at the constituency office of Conservative pro-Israel MP Mike Freer.

Police and firefighters raced to Freer’s north London office when a fire broke out there at about 7 p.m. on Christmas Eve. No one was hurt and Freer was not in his office at the time, according to the Metropolitan police.

A justice minister and the MP for Finchley and Golders Green, home to one of London’s largest Orthodox Jewish communities, Freer is an outspoken supporter of Israel, and has been vocal in his support of the Jewish state in its war on Palestinian terror group Hamas.

Freer said that the possible arson was just “one of the many threats” he has faced in recent weeks, according to local media.

The Guardian reported that many Labour parliamentarians have expressed concern for their personal safety, after their offices were targeted by pro-Palestinian protesters angered by the party’s refusal to back a ceasefire in Gaza.

On the other hand, Labour MP Apsana Begum, the first member of Parliament to wear a hijab, said she’d received “Islamophobic abuse and death threats” because she backed a ceasefire, breaking with her party leader Keir Starmer.

UK police officers during a pro-Palestinian march organized by Palestine Solidarity Campaign in central London, October 28, 2023. (Jordan Pettitt/PA via AP)

Freer is a member of Conservative Friends of Israel. In 2014, he resigned as parliamentary secretary so he could vote “No” on a resolution to recognize the state of Palestine.

At the time, Freer said the two-state solution “should be the end, not the start of the process.”

Conservative MP Mike Freer in an interview to Sky News outside his constituency office in North London, December 26, 2023. (Screen capture: Sky News. Used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law.)

In 2021, police notified Freer that his office had been monitored by Ali Harbi Ali, who went on to murder MP David Amess, and planned to kill other Tory leaders. Freer was unexpectedly absent from his office the day Ali came to stalk him. Since then, the MP and his staff have worn stab vests and carry panic alarms.