Three people have denied public order offences following a pro-Palestine protest outside Sir Keir Starmer’s family home.
On Tuesday, demonstrators hung a banner outside the Labour Leader’s north London house saying “Starmer stop the killing,” surrounded by red handprints.
Protesters also laid rows of children’s shoes in front of the door, something that has been done at a number of pro-Palestine protests to signify children killed in Gaza.
Leonorah Ward, 21, from Leeds, Zosia Lewis, 23, of Newcastle upon Tyne, and Daniel Formentin, 24, of Leeds, were all charged with section 42 of the Criminal Justice and Police Act 2001, which is designed to “stop the harassment of a person at their home address”.
They have also been charged for breaching court bail.
Prosecutor David Burns told Westminster Magistrates’ Court the incident had “really affected” Sir Keir’s wife, Victoria, who had “returned from a shopping trip with her son”.
The protest meant she could not return to her home because she “felt intimidated”, Mr Burns said.
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Home Secretary James Cleverly said he was glad arrests had been made, adding there is “no excuse for harassing and intimidating politicians and their families in their homes”.
The protest was also condemned by Rishi Sunak, who said that “no MP should be harassed at their own home”.
The prime minister’s home in north Yorkshire was targeted last year by climate protesters.
There are fears the tactic will be increasingly used ahead of the general election, expected later this year.
District Judge Stephen Leake set a trial date of 19 June at the same court.
All three were granted conditional bail, ordering them not to participate in any further protests, or to leave the county in which they live.
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The government has faced increasing pressure to suspend arms export licences to Israel after seven aid workers, including three British nationals, were killed by an Israeli airstrike last week.
Many MPs have also called on ministers to publish legal advice it has received on whether Israel is violating international law in Gaza, where over 30,000 Palestinians have been killed since the Hamas attacks on 7 October, which killed around 1,200 people in Israel.
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Sir Keir has reiterated calls for the government to publish the advice, with the party’s shadow foreign secretary David Lammy stating arms sales should be halted if there has been a “serious breach” of international law.
The same group that targeted Sir Keir’s house also sprayed red paint over the Ministry of Defence headquarters in London on Wednesday.
The Met said five people had been arrested on suspicion of criminal damage and are in custody in relation to this demonstration.
