Extra police protection sent to UK synagogues after Manchester attack, PM confirms
Extra police protection has been sent to UK synagogues after the Manchester knife attack, Sir Keir Starmer has confirmed.
Greater Manchester Police said two people have died and three people are seriously injured, after a car was driven at pedestrians and a person was stabbed outside the Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation Synagogue in Crumpsall on Thursday morning.
The offender is also dead, having been shot by police, and the incident has been confirmed as terrorism.
The incident took place on Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the year for Jews.
Manchester synagogue attack: Follow latest
As events unfolded, the prime minister left a meeting of European leaders in Copenhagen, Denmark, to chair an emergency Cobra meeting in the UK.
Emergency services and cordons at the scene. Pic: Reuters
The attack took place in Crumpsall
Speaking to broadcasters on the tarmac in Copenhagen before getting on to a plane, Sir Keir said: “The attack in Manchester this morning is absolutely shocking and all of our thoughts are with those affected.
“I’m on my way back to London, and when I arrive, I will chair an emergency Cobra meeting.
“I’m already able to say that additional police assets are being deployed to synagogues across the country, and we will do everything to keep our Jewish community safe.
“I’ve spoken to Mark Gardner of the CST and Andy Burnham, the mayor of Manchester, and I want to thank the emergency services for the speed of their response.”
CST members at the scene of the Manchester synagogue attack. Pic: PA
The CST is the Community Security Trust, a charity that provides “security, safety and advice to the Jewish community”.
In a statement, the group said: “CST is working with police and the local Jewish community following a serious incident at a synagogue in north Manchester.
“This appears to be an appalling attack on the holiest day of the Jewish year.
“We thank the GMP officers and synagogue security who responded immediately to deal with the incident.”
Read more:
Everything we know about synagogue attack
Mr Burnham said one of the victims in the incident appeared to be a security guard, adding: “Some of the security used by our colleagues in the Jewish community has really played a role here in preventing it being a worse situation.”
Politicians from across the spectrum have condemned the attack.
Tory leader Kemi Badenoch branded it “vile and disgusting”, Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey said he was “horrified and appalled”, and Reform UK leader Nigel Farage said his “thoughts and prayers” were with those affected and their families.
Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London, said the Metropolitan Police is “stepping up patrols in Jewish communities and synagogues across London”.
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Politics
Michelle Mone says she won’t step down as Tory peer – and accuses chancellor of ‘endangering’ her
Baroness Michelle Mone says she will defy calls for her to step down from the House of Lords after PPE Medpro, a company founded by her husband, was ordered to repay £122m to the government for providing faulty PPE at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The peer has faced calls to stand down from MPs across the political spectrum, including Chancellor Rachel Reeves, who earlier this week agreed with Baroness Mone’s contention that the government was pursuing a “vendetta” in trying to recover improper Covid funding.
“Too right we are,” she said in comments at the Labour Party conference.
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Baroness Mone ‘should resign’
In an extraordinary letter to the prime minister, Baroness Mone has accused Ms Reeves of endangering her and her family with her comments, citing the murders of Jo Cox and David Amess as evidence of the risks facing parliamentarians.
She also alleged ministerial interference in the civil and ongoing criminal investigations of PPE Medpro, and has called for an investigation into whether ministers have “improperly influenced” the Crown Prosecution Service and the National Crime Agency.
In the letter, sent from the private office of Baroness Mone OBE and seen by Sky News, she addresses the prime minister directly, writing in a personal capacity “first as a wife, second as a mother, and lastly as a Baroness.”
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£122m bill that may never be paid
Referring to Ms Reeves’ comments, she writes: “The chancellor’s deliberate use of the term “vendetta”, a word connoting vengeance, feud and blood feud, is incendiary and has directly increased the risks to my personal safety…. My family and I now live with a heightened and genuine fear of appearing in public.”
She goes on to accuse Reeves and health secretary Wes Streeting of “falsehoods” in demanding that she hand back £122m, pointing out that she was never a director of PPE Medpro and “never received a penny from it personally.”
While the company was founded by her husband Doug Barrowman, a High Court judgement this week confirmed that Baroness Mone introduced it to the government’s VIP fast lane for PPE providers, and lobbied on its behalf in negotiations.
She has previously admitted that £29m of profit from the PPE contract was passed to a family trust of which she and her children are beneficiaries.
The peer has also accused the Prime Minister of “a total lie” when “you stated in Parliament that my children had received £29m into their bank accounts.”
Baroness Mone said that following these comments, she had received threatening and abusive communications, and cited the death of TV presenter Caroline Flack, who took her own life, as showing “the fatal consequences of personalised public vilification”.
“Your cabinet members, by repeating this knowingly false claim, are inciting hostility and inflaming public hatred against me.”
Baroness Michelle Mone and her husband Doug Barrowman. Pic: PA
She has also accused the home secretary of influencing the NCA and Director of Public Prosecutions in unspecified meetings to discuss “high-profile cases”.
“That political influence is being brought to bear is, therefore, undeniable,” she said.
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On Wednesday, PPE Medpro was ordered to repay £122m paid for 25 million surgical gowns that failed to meet sterility standards in breach of its contract with the Department of Health and Social Care.
PPE Medpro was put into administration the day before the judgment, with assets of just £666,000.
Asked if Baroness Mone would step down from the Lords, a spokesman said: “Those calling for Baroness Mone’s resignation from the House of Lords would be well advised to read the open letter sent this morning to the prime minister, which sets out how this has now become a personal attack and vendetta, politically motivated with loss of all balance and objectivity.”
Sky News has asked Number 10 and the Treasury for a response to the allegations made by Baroness Mone.
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