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Counterterror police in London have sought to reassure UK MPs following the arrest of a man on suspicion of carrying out arson attacks at two properties and on a car linked to Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer.
The comments by the Metropolitan Police came as it said a 21-year-old man from Sydenham, south London had been arrested in the early hours of Tuesday and was still being held in police custody late that afternoon.
The force said the arrest was in connection to three potentially related fires in recent days: one at Starmer’s family home in north London, a second involving a car on the same street late last week and a third at a building in Islington on Sunday that is also linked to the prime minister.
The fire at the Starmer family home, which he rented out to tenants after moving to 10 Downing Street in July last year, caused damage to the property’s entrance.
Commander Dominic Murphy, head of the Met’s counter terrorism command, said it was “working at pace and continue to explore various lines of enquiry to establish the cause of the fires, and any potential motivation for these”.
“A key line of enquiry is whether the fires are linked due to the two premises and the vehicle all having previous links to the same high-profile public figure,” he said.
“We recognise that this investigation may cause concern to other public figures — particularly MPs,” Murphy said, adding that MPs could contact ‘Operation Bridger’ officers tasked with nationwide MP protection.
“The protection of MPs is something we take extremely seriously across the whole of policing,” he said.
Police did not believe the fire at Starmer’s home was started by an explosive device but were continuing to investigate its source, one person familiar with the investigation said on Monday.
The three fires with potential links to Starmer are likely to heighten concerns inside government about a co-ordinated campaign against the prime minister.
The Met did not say on Tuesday whether they expected further arrests to follow. Police can hold suspects for at least 24 hours without charge, but this can be extended for serious alleged crimes.
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.
Murphy said the investigation “remained ongoing”.
Starmer’s home has been targeted by protesters in the past, including in relation to the Israel-Hamas war.
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.