Starmer
says Polanski ‘is not fit to lead a political party’ after Golders Green police
criticism
Green
leader apologises for sharing post that said officers were ‘repeatedly and
violently kicking a mentally ill man in the head’ and says he had did so ‘in
haste’
Peter
Walker Senior political correspondent
Fri 1 May
2026 19.09 BST
Keir
Starmer has condemned Zack Polanski as “disgraceful” and unfit to head a
political party after the Greens’ leader shared a social media post critical of
the way police tackled the suspect in the Golders Green stabbings.
The prime
minister said any criticism of the police involved in the arrest was unfair on
officers having to make split-second decisions in a moment of potentially grave
danger.
Police
were filmed detaining the suspect after two Jewish people were stabbed in the
north-west London suburb on Wednesday. Footage of the arrest shared on social
media shows two officers appearing to kick the man on or near his head.
Polanski
retweeted, without comment, a post on X alleging that officers were “repeatedly
and violently kicking a mentally ill man in the head” when he was already
incapacitated by a stun gun.
Speaking
to BBC Radio 4, Starmer said that, having seen the footage, police might have
believed an explosive device was in the rucksack carried by the suspect.
“I don’t
know what was going through the mind of those officers, but if I was there, I’d
be thinking: ‘He’s going to detonate something. He’s going to blow me up and
everybody around here.’ And in those circumstances, I think you can quite see
why what could have gone through their mind is: ‘We need to do whatever we can
to disable this guy,’” Starmer said.
He added:
“You have to make a decision in that split moment according to the situation as
you understand it to be. And for politicians to wade in, as Zack Polanski did,
is disgraceful. He’s not fit to lead any political party.”
Polanski
yesterday apologised for the post, saying he shared it “in haste”.
Starmer’s
intervention came after the Metropolitan police commissioner, Mark Rowley,
wrote a letter to Polanski describing the claim as “inaccurate and misinformed
commentary”. He praised the officers as “nothing short of extraordinary”,
adding: “Without their efforts to stop him, I dread to think what the outcome
could have been.”
Rowley
later told the BBC that his letter was not an “intervention to politics”,
adding: “I’m simply dealing with operational policing and defending my officers
because I want them to have confidence to protect Londoners.
“Officers
need confidence in confronting these dangerous people, and if an eminent person
thoughtlessly steps into that and undermines that, then I’m going to deal with
that.”
In other
interviews on Friday, Rowley said his force would need more resources to
protect Jewish communities, and that he was concerned about the possible scale
of two protest marches planned in London during May.
Kemi
Badenoch, the Conservative leader, said: “If someone Zack Polanski loved had
just been stabbed, I don’t think he would be worried about how the police were
disarming that person.”
In
Polanski’s statement, issued on Friday afternoon, he apologised for the post,
saying: “Everyone in leadership has a responsibility for lowering the
temperature at a time of such tension, and I apologise for sharing a tweet in
haste.
“Police
responses to emergency situations such as these do need later reflection in the
right forums, but I accept that social media is not the appropriate channel for
doing so. I have invited Mark Rowley to meet with me to discuss the police
response and the wider issues raised in his letter.’
He also
said in a separate social media post that during a campaign visit to Hastings,
East Sussex, a group of protesters directed Nazi salutes at him. He added:
“Today the prime minister uses his office to attack the only Jewish party
leader to score political points.”
The row
came as the director of public prosecutions for England and Wales, Stephen
Parkinson, promised to firmly tackle all hate crimes, warning of a “deeply
troubling rise in antisemitic incidents across the country”.
In a
statement on Friday, Parkinson said he recognised the “profound fear, distress
and anger” that Jewish people were feeling, adding: “Antisemitic hate crime is
not only an attack on individuals – it is an attack on the values of respect,
tolerance and the rule of law that underpin our society.
“Let me
be clear: those who commit antisemitic crimes will be held accountable. The
Crown Prosecution Service will use the full force of the law to ensure those
responsible are prosecuted robustly and swiftly, and justice is done.”
Essa
Suleiman, 45, appeared in court on Friday charged with the attempted murders of
three people during two knife attacks in London on Wednesday – the incident in
Golders Green and an alleged attack during a personal dispute in south London.
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