Trio deny public order offences
THREE people have denied public order offences after a pro- Palestine demonstration outside the home of Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer.
On Tuesday, demonstrators hung a banner outside Starmer’s house that read: “Starmer stop the killing,” surrounded by red hand prints.
Protesters then laid rows of children’s shoes in front of the door, something that has been done at a number of proPalestine protests to signify children killed in Gaza.
Leonorah Ward, 21, of Leeds, Zosia Lewis, 23, of NewcastleuponTyne and Daniel Formentin, 24, of Leeds, have been charged with section 42 of the Criminal Justice and Police Act 2001 and for breaching court bail.
The group that carried out the demonstration, known as Youth Demand, describes itself as a “new youth resistance campaign fighting for an end to genocide”.
Prosecutor David Burns told Westminster Magistrates’ Court that the incident had “really affected” Starmer’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”, Burns said.
In a video posted to Twitter/ X, Youth Demand called for a two- way arms embargo on Israel, saying that weapons manufactured in the UK were being “used to cause genocide”.
The same group sprayed Labour HQ with red paint on Monday and later claimed that 11 people had been arrested in relation to that incident.
The UK 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 air strike.
Many MPs have also called on the Government to publish legal advice it has received on whether Israel is violating international law in Gaza, where more than 30,000 Palestinians have been killed since October 7.
The party’s shadow foreign secretary David Lammy has said arms sales should be halted if there has been a “serious breach” of international law.