Pro-Palestine mob targets home and offices of Labour MPs who refused to back calls for ceasefire in Gaza

A mob of pro-Palestine activists surrounded a senior Labour MP’s home yesterday.

The offices of Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer and other politicians who refused to back calls for a Gaza ceasefire were also targeted by protesters. Sir Keir was called a ‘genocide enabler’ and accused of having blood on his hands.

Targeting the home of a politician, however, represents a sinister new tactic after weeks of anti-Israel marches. It is unclear whether or not the senior Labour figure – who is not being identified for security reasons – was at home at the time.

He was said to be liaising with police last night. MPs were warned not to meet constituents face-to-face at weekly surgeries but to hold online meetings instead.

Labour MP Kim Leadbeater, whose sister Jo Cox was murdered outside her surgery in Batley, West Yorkshire, in 2016, has also faced criticism on social media for abstaining on the ceasefire vote.

Two years ago, Tory MP David Amess was murdered in his constituency office in Southend, Essex, by an Islamist terrorist because he voted in support of bombing Syria.

More than 100 pro-Palestine protests were held across Britain yesterday. Protesters targeted a string of stores across Manchester including McDonald’s and Starbucks. A pro-Palestinian demo assembled outside Downing Street amid an ongoing ‘day of action’ by activists that has seen police issue dispersal orders. British Transport Police officers arrested at least five people at a sit-in at London Waterloo. There were also sit-in protests at London Bridge and Leeds stations.

Around 300 demonstrators gathered outside Sir Keir’s office in Camden, North London, with placards saying ‘blood on your hands.’ Another sign, with a drawing of Sir Keir, read: ‘If it smells like a Tory, acts like a Tory, and lies like a Tory, it’s probably a Tory.’

Last week, the Labour leader lost eight Shadow Ministers who voted for a ceasefire in a parliamentary motion tabled by the SNP.

A video emerged yesterday on X, formerly Twitter, where a protester outside Starmer’s office said: ‘They’ve gone beyond shaytan [Satan]. You know he’s on the list because his wife’s a Zionist.’ The ‘list’ may have been the tally of MPs who were targeted yesterday in a ‘day of action’ organised by the Palestinian Solidarity Group.

The same protesters also chanted ‘shame on you’ against Tulip Siddiq, the Labour MP for Hampstead and Kilburn who abstained in the SNP vote. Rushanara Ali, MP for Bow and Bethnal Green, and who also abstained, was targeted by schoolchildren who demonstrated outside her office.

Steve McCabe, the Labour MP for Birmingham Selly Oak, was forced to flee from furious pro-Palestine protesters yesterday when they besieged a surgery he was holding inside a church.

The 350-strong crowd hurled abuse at him for abstaining in the ceasefire vote. As six police officers watched, the crowd chanted: ‘Steve McCabe, you can’t hide, you’re supporting genocide.’

He tried to get away through a side door and jump into his Porsche SUV, but the crowd ran towards him shouting ‘shame, shame’.

Fellow Labour MP Shabana Mahmood, who represents Birmingham Ladywood, was also targeted yesterday, alongside other senior party figures such as Emily Thornberry, the Shadow Attorney General.

British Transport police said it dispersed up to 200 protesters from London Bridge and about a similar number from Waterloo.

No arrests were reported at Leeds station.

It appears that protesters who left Waterloo headed to Westminster where they demonstrated outside Downing Street.

Last night, The Mail on Sunday obtained an email sent to MPs by the GMB, the union representing their staff.

It said: ‘For staff safety as well as that of members, we recommend holding surgeries online only while the unrest continues.’

If MPs do hold ‘in-person appointments’ with staff on hand, they are advised to liaise with the parliamentary security team to arrange ‘a security presence’.

The GMB’s Jenny Symmons said: ‘In recent weeks staff have been harassed, threatened, and had their offices vandalised.

‘Workloads have increased massively meaning that staff are typically working beyond their hours while dealing with distressing correspondence.’

A parliamentary source revealed last night that new security measures for MPs could be unveiled as early as tomorrow.

A suspect package was left at London’s Covent Garden yesterday to ‘provoke concern’, Scotland Yard said last night. It was not deemed dangerous and cordons were lifted soon afterwards.