Sir Keir Starmer was heckled and booed as he arrived in Golders Green on Thursday, 24 hours after a terrorist knife attack left two Jewish men hospitalised — with protesters chanting “Keir Starmer — Jew harmer” and “traitor” as his police convoy swept past crowds to deliver him to a private meeting away from public view.
The Prime Minister did not step out to face protesters as he was taken to a closed-door meeting at the new headquarters of Jewish ambulance service Hatzollah, shielded from the community members who had gathered demanding accountability. The optics were damaging — one of the victims, Shloime Rand, 34, speaking from his hospital bed, said he held the Labour government responsible and alleged that Starmer’s administration was “not doing its job” in protecting Jewish people in the UK. Rand described it as “a miracle” he was alive after being stabbed in the chest.
Local residents were scathing. Mendy Muster, 23, an accountant from Golders Green, told the Daily Mail: “We all think he is a coward for not answering us directly. He knows he has let us down. He knows it is his fault and he is taking too long. He should have been here yesterday let alone today. He is not doing enough — he is not preventing anything, he is reacting.”
Jamie Garson, 19, who is preparing to study PPE at the London School of Economics, was equally blunt. “It is not even a surprise — the coward he is. I don’t think I have seen a country leader across Europe as bad. I think he is a weak man, his statements are weak and his laws are weak. He is causing an exodus of Jews which has not been seen in many years.”
The attack, which took place on Wednesday morning on Highfield Avenue, has now been formally declared a terrorist incident. The suspect — a 45-year-old British national born in Somalia — was Tasered and arrested at the scene after allegedly stabbing Rand and 76-year-old Moshe Shine. Met Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley confirmed the motive was antisemitism and disclosed the suspect had “a history of serious violence and mental health issues.”
The controversy surrounding the incident extended to Green Party leader Zack Polanski, who was accused of effectively endorsing a social media post that criticised the police response to the arrest. The post, later reposted by Polanski, said: “So essentially his officers were repeatedly and violently kicking a mentally ill man in the head when he was already incapacitated by Taser.” The repost prompted accusations that Polanski was “more concerned” about the suspected terrorist’s wellbeing than the two Jewish men he allegedly stabbed in the street. Footage of the arrest showed the suspect continuing to hold a knife after being Tasered, with officers having no knowledge of whether a backpack he was carrying contained explosives.
The timing of Starmer’s visit — a full day after the attack — and his decision to avoid direct engagement with the community he arrived to reassure has deepened the sense among many in Golders Green that the political response to the wave of antisemitic violence in north London has been wholly inadequate.
