{"id":561198,"date":"2026-05-01T20:35:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-01T20:35:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/561198\/"},"modified":"2026-05-01T20:35:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-01T20:35:10","slug":"starmer-says-polanski-is-not-fit-to-lead-a-political-party-after-golders-green-police-criticism-zack-polanski","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/561198\/","title":{"rendered":"Starmer says Polanski \u2018is not fit to lead a political party\u2019 after Golders Green police criticism | Zack Polanski"},"content":{"rendered":"

Keir Starmer has condemned Zack Polanski<\/a> as \u201cdisgraceful\u201d and unfit to head a political party after the Greens\u2019 leader shared a social media post critical of the way police tackled the suspect in the Golders Green stabbings.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Police were filmed detaining the suspect after two Jewish people were stabbed in the north-west London<\/a> suburb on Wednesday. Footage of the arrest shared on social media shows two officers appearing to kick the man on or near his head.<\/p>\n

Polanski retweeted, without comment, a post on X alleging that officers were \u201crepeatedly and violently kicking a mentally ill man in the head\u201d when he was already incapacitated by a stun gun.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know what was going through the mind of those officers, but if I was there, I\u2019d be thinking: \u2018He\u2019s going to detonate something. He\u2019s going to blow me up and everybody around here.\u2019 And in those circumstances, I think you can quite see why what could have gone through their mind is: \u2018We need to do whatever we can to disable this guy,\u2019\u201d Starmer said.<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cYou 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\u2019s not fit to lead any political party.\u201d<\/p>\n

Polanski yesterday apologised for the post<\/a>, saying he shared it \u201cin haste\u201d.<\/p>\n

Starmer\u2019s intervention came after the Metropolitan police commissioner, Mark Rowley, wrote a letter to Polanski<\/a> describing the claim as \u201cinaccurate and misinformed commentary\u201d. He praised the officers as \u201cnothing short of extraordinary\u201d, adding: \u201cWithout their efforts to stop him, I dread to think what the outcome could have been.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rowley later told the BBC that his letter was not an \u201cintervention to politics\u201d, adding: \u201cI\u2019m simply dealing with operational policing and defending my officers because I want them to have confidence to protect Londoners.<\/p>\n

\u201cOfficers need confidence in confronting these dangerous people, and if an eminent person thoughtlessly steps into that and undermines that, then I\u2019m going to deal with that.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Kemi Badenoch, the Conservative leader, said: \u201cIf someone Zack Polanski loved had just been stabbed, I don\u2019t think he would be worried about how the police were disarming that person.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Polanski\u2019s statement, issued on Friday afternoon, he apologised for the post, saying: \u201cEveryone in leadership has a responsibility for lowering the temperature at a time of such tension, and I apologise for sharing a tweet in haste.<\/p>\n

\u201cPolice 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<\/a> to meet with me to discuss the police response and the wider issues raised in his letter.\u2019<\/p>\n

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: \u201cToday the prime minister uses his office to attack the only Jewish party leader to score political points.\u201d<\/p>\n

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 \u201cdeeply troubling rise in antisemitic incidents across the country\u201d.<\/p>\n

In a statement on Friday, Parkinson said he recognised the \u201cprofound fear, distress and anger\u201d that Jewish people were feeling, adding: \u201cAntisemitic hate crime is not only an attack on individuals \u2013 it is an attack on the values of respect, tolerance and the rule of law that underpin our society.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Essa Suleiman, 45, appeared in court<\/a> on Friday charged with the attempted murders of three people during two knife attacks in London on Wednesday \u2013 the incident in Golders Green and an alleged attack during a personal dispute in south London.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Keir Starmer has condemned Zack Polanski as \u201cdisgraceful\u201d and unfit to head a political party after the Greens\u2019…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":561199,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-561198","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/561198","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=561198"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/561198\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/561199"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=561198"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=561198"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=561198"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}