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A second man has been arrested in connection with the alleged arson attacks targeting properties linked to Prime Minister Keir Starmer, the Metropolitan Police said.
The arrest of the 26-year old suspect at Luton airport on Saturday follows charges being brought against Roman Lavrynovych, a Ukrainian national, this week, after three fires including one at Starmer’s family home.
Counterterror police have been leading the investigation. Lavrynovych, 21, has been charged with three counts of arson with an intent to endanger life. The second suspect, who investigators have not named and is yet to be charged, was arrested on similar grounds, police said.
“The 26-year-old was arrested around 13:45hrs on Saturday, 17 May at London Luton airport on suspicion of conspiracy to commit arson with intent to endanger life,” the police said in a statement.
“The arrest was made by counterterrorism officers from the Eastern Region Special Operations Unit. The man has been taken into police custody in London.”
“All [the fires] have previous connections with a high-profile public figure, and therefore officers from the Met’s Counter Terrorism Command have led the investigation into the fires.”
Alongside the fire at Starmer’s family home in Kentish Town north London — which he is understood to have been renting out since entering Downing Street last year — another property once linked to the prime minister in Islington also caught fire, as did a car he once owned on the same street as the family home, all in the space of a week.
At a hearing at Westminster Magistrate’s Court on Friday Lavrynovych was detained ahead of a hearing at the Old Bailey on June 6. He was first arrested on Tuesday.
His legal team did not request bail.
Prosecutor Sarah Przybylska told the court that his alleged offending was currently “unexplained”.
Przybylska said that Lavrynovych had denied arson when interviewed under caution. She alleged he had used “accelerants” to start the fires.
Lavrynovych spoke only to confirm his identity and had proceedings translated for him by a Ukrainian interpreter.