Mike Freer: Man arrested over alleged ‘threatening’ call to Tory MP

Published

1 year ago

February 6, 2024

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A man has been arrested after MP Mike Freer reported receiving a threatening phone call.

Mr Freer, currently a minister and the MP for Finchley and Golders Green, last week said he would not be standing for election after a raft of death threats and abuse.

He said an arson attack on his office on Christmas Eve was the “last straw”.

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The Metropolitan Police said in a statement today officers had arrested someone following a report of an “abusive and threatening” phone call made on Wednesday last week – the day Mr Freer spoke about his decision to stand down.

A Met spokesperson said: “An investigation was launched and a 46-year-old man was arrested on Tuesday, 6 February on suspicion of malicious communication.

“He remains in custody at a north London police station.”

The police said this was a separate investigation to the arson attack.

The spokesperson added: “A man and a woman have been remanded in custody after being charged with arson with intent to endanger life.

“Our investigation established the offence was not a hate crime and the two incidents are not believed to be linked.”

Detective Superintendent Will Lexton-Jones said: “It is vitally important for elected officials and their staff they can be confident in their safety and security, and we are committed to ensuring this.

“Today’s arrest sends a clear message we will not tolerate threats or aggression of any kind towards elected officials. We will deal quickly and robustly with such offences.

“We are in regular contact with MPs and other elected officials and fully recognise the growing concerns they are telling us about their safety, and as you would expect, we have kept Mr Freer updated throughout this investigation including today’s arrest.”

Sir Lindsay Hoyle, the Speaker of the House of Commons, said last week that safety measures were kept under review and that parliament works “very closely with all the police forces around the country”.

The issue of MPs’ safety has become more prominent in the wake of the killings of Jo Cox and Sir David Amess.

Operation Bridger is a national policing operation which supports MPs across the UK.

This has included regional security briefings for MPs and other elected officials.

“Where particular concerns are identified, security arrangements are reviewed, adapted and strengthened as appropriate,” the Met spokesperson added.

“We continue to review the support we provide to MPs and their staff to ensure we have the right measures in place to keep them safe.

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The crypto fund domicile decision: EU or the UK?

Published

2 hours ago

June 17, 2025

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The crypto fund domicile decision: EU or the UK?

As the EU’s MiCA regulation and the UK’s evolving crypto laws diverge, fund managers face a key choice: to opt for the EU’s legal certainty and passporting or the UK’s flexible, innovation-driven approach.

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Sir Keir Starmer hits out at politicians who ‘shout and scream but do nothing’ over grooming gangs

Published

2 hours ago

June 17, 2025

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Sir Keir Starmer hits out at politicians who 'shout and scream but do nothing' over grooming gangs

Sir Keir Starmer has said he gets “frustrated” with politicians who “shout and scream but do nothing” as he defended past comments about a grooming gangs inquiry.

Speaking to Sky News’s political editor Beth Rigby, the prime minister was asked if he regretted saying in January that those calling for a national probe into paedophile rings were “jumping on a far-right bandwagon” – given he has now agreed to one.

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Sir Keir said he was “really clear” he was talking about the Tories, who were demanding an inquiry they never set up when they were in government.

He said: “I was calling out those politicians.

“I am frustrated with politics when people shout and scream a lot and do nothing when they’ve got the opportunity to do it. It’s one of the worst aspects of politics, in my view.”

Sir Keir also said there “must be accountability” for authorities who “shied away” from talking about the ethnicity of perpetrators for fear of being branded racist, as exposed in a report by Baroness Casey published on Monday.

Asked if he is happy for “social workers, policemen and people that failed” to be held accountable, the prime minister said: “Where the inquiry uncovers failure or wrongdoing, then there should absolutely be accountability.

“That is amongst the purposes of an inquiry, and it’s a statutory inquiry… which will therefore mean there is power to compel evidence of witnesses because it’s important that it is comprehensive and important that it gets to every single issue. And as part of that process, there’s accountability for individuals who did wrong.”

Baroness Casey was asked to produce an audit of sexual abuse carried out by grooming gangs in England and Wales in January, when comments by tech billionaire Elon Musk brought the scandal back into the spotlight.

The government initially resisted calls from the Tories for a national inquiry into grooming gangs, saying they wanted to focus on implementing the recommendations of Professor Alexis Jay’s seven-year review into child abuse.

The review concluded in 2022 but the Conservatives did not implement its recommendations before they lost the election last July.

The government’s position has changed following Baroness Casey’s audit, which recommended an inquiry.

Her report found that ethnicity data is not recorded for two-thirds of grooming gang perpetrators.

However at a local level in three police forces – Greater Manchester, South Yorkshire and West Yorkshire – “there has been a disproportionality of group-based child sexual exploitation offending by men of Asian ethnicity”.

The cross bench peer said instead of looking into whether ethnicity or cultural factors played a part, authorities “avoided the topic altogether for fear of appearing racist”, and this warranted further investigation.