Golders Green terror attack latest: Suspect named as 45-year-old Essa Suleiman – UK Times

Sir Keir Starmer has said the government is open to learning lessons about the Prevent anti-terror programme following the Golders Green attack.

Asked by reporters whether Prevent can keep people safe, he said: “The investigation is obviously still ongoing, and so we haven’t got all the facts.

“Prevent was reviewed and we made changes after the Southport attack. We need to be open to learning any further lessons that may come out of this investigation, but we’re a very early stage at this point.”

Sir Keir Starmer called on all Britons to call out antisemitism in everyday life as he addressed the nation following the Golders Green attack.

Pledging to do “everything in our power to stamp this hatred out”, he warned that although these attacks are an “affront to British values”, these values “are not a gift handed down”.

“I also call on everyone decent in this country to open their eyes to Jewish pain, Jewish suffering and Jewish fear,” he told a press conference.

“I call on everyone to come together and fight antisemitism, and I call on everyone to fight for the decent, respectful, tolerant Britain that I and millions of people love, so that our freedom and our values can still speak loud and true to a community that can no longer take it on faith.”

The prime minister has warned that anyone openly supporting images encouraging killing Jews is effectively “calling for terrorism”.

“Of course, we protect freedom of speech and peaceful protest in this country, but if you are marching with people wearing pictures of paragliders without calling it out, you are venerating the murder of Jews,” he said in a Downing Street address.

“If you stand alongside people who say globalising, you are calling for terrorism against Jews, and people who use that phrase should be prosecuted.

“It is racism, extreme racism, and it has left a minority community in this country, scared, intimidating, wondering if they belong.”

Sir Keir Starmer said he expressed his “sadness and solidarity” with the Jewish community and declared his “determination to act”, but admitted the attack “is not a one off”.

“And so people are scared, scared to show who they are in their community, scared to go to synagogue and practice their religion, scared to go to university as a Jew, to send their children to school as a Jew, to tell their colleagues that they are Jewish, even to use our NHS,” he said.

Sir Keir Starmer has pledged a series of steps to crack down on terror attacks on the Jewish community.

In a live broadcast he said: “We will strengthen the visible police presence in our Jewish communities. We will increase our investment in those Jewish security services.

“We will introduce much stronger powers to shut down charities that promote anti semitic extremism.

“We will prevent hate preachers from entering our country, our campuses, our streets, our communities. [We will] work with our justice system to speed up sentencing on antisemitic attacks, so there is a stronger deterrence factor, as we do with riots.

“And we need stronger powers to tackle the malign threat posed by states like Iran, because we know for a fact that they want to harm British Jews, which is why we will fast track the necessary legislation.”

Prime minister Sir Keir Starmer is addressing the nation from Downing Street with an update on the Government’s response to the Golders Green terrorist attack.

Breaking news: The suspect in the double stabbing has been identified as Essa Suleiman.

The 45-year-old was previously referred to the government’s counter-terror programme