British intelligence services are investigating Russian involvement in arson attacks on property linked to Prime Minister Keir Starmer, the Financial Times reports, citing British officials.
British officials are investigating whether figures from Russia could have recruited the three men accused of arson, they said. They say they are now discussing how best to respond if that’s the case.
Prosecutor Sara Przybylska said in court that the likely plot is still “unclear”. Counter-terrorism police, who are investigating, have no leads as to motive.
Starmer said the fires were “an attack on all of us, on democracy and the values we stand for”.
Police said two Ukrainians – Petro Pochinko, 34, Roman Lavrynovych, 21, and a 26-year-old man whose name is unknown – have been detained on suspicion of involvement in the arson attacks.
On the night of 12 May, emergency services responded to a fire at a house in Kentish Town where Keir Starmer lived before becoming Prime Minister and moving to 10 Downing Street.Police were notified by the London Fire Brigade of a fire at this residential address at 1: 35am. The entrance to the house was damaged but no-one was injured.
A car associated with Keir Starmer had been set on fire four days earlier, on 8 May, in the same street.
On 11 May, firefighters put out a small fire at the front door of a house converted into flats in nearby Islington. According to the BBC, the Prime Minister had lived there in the 1990s.