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The Metropolitan Police have arrested a third man over the suspected arson attacks on properties connected to UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer.
A 34-year-old was arrested in Chelsea on Monday morning and taken into custody on suspicion of conspiracy to commit arson with intent to endanger life, the force said.
The arrest relates to three fires, including one at Starmer’s family home in Kentish Town, and another involving a vehicle previously owned by the prime minister on the same street. A third fire was at a property in Islington that is also linked to the prime minister.
Over the weekend, a 26-year-old suspect was arrested at Luton airport in the same investigation. That man is still in custody after police obtained a warrant of further detention from Westminster Magistrates’ Court, the Met said on Monday.
A third suspect, Ukrainian national Roman Lavrynovych, was charged last week with three counts of arson with intent to endanger life.
At a hearing at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Friday, Lavrynovych, 21, was remanded in custody ahead of an appearance at the Old Bailey on June 6.
At Friday’s hearing, prosecutor Sarah Przybylska told the court that Lavrynovych’s alleged offending was “unexplained”.
She added that he had denied arson when interviewed under caution, and alleged that he had used “accelerants” to start the fires.
The court was told Lavrynovych had no fixed address in the UK, and had been staying with relatives in Sydenham, south-east London, where he was arrested on Tuesday night. His lawyers did not request bail.
The investigation is being led by the Met’s Counter Terrorism Command because of the possible connection between the fires and “a high-profile public figure”.
At Prime Minister’s Questions last week, Starmer said the fires were “an attack on all of us, on democracy, and the values that we stand for”.
