Pro-Israel UK Member of Parliament Says He’s Stepping Down After Death Threats, Arson Attack

Conservative candidate Mike Freer after winning the Finchley & Golders Green constitue
Getty Images
Oliver JJ Lane

A Conservative pro-Israel Member of Parliament representing a “mainly Jewish area” who had his office burnt out at Christmas says he will not seek re-election, citing death threats.

Mike Freer, a Conservative Member of Britain’s lower house who has represented Finchley and Golders Green since 2010 has become the latest member of his party to announce he won’t be attempting to defend his seat in this year’s forthcoming General Election, widely anticipated for the Autumn.

The politician cited threats to his life and a recent arson attack against his constituency office.

Freer’s parliamentary colleague Sir David Amess was stabbed to death by Islamist terrorist Ali Harbi Ali in October 2021. It was revealed during Ali’s trial that Sir David may not have been the first intended target, and before killing him the Islamist had attended a constituency surgery (open door meeting, ‘town hall’) that Freer had meant to attend, but had to cancel at the last minute.

After this was revealed, Freer said he and his staff would wear a stab vest and carry a panic alarm when meeting the public in future on the advice of police.

Beyond this apparent actual attempt to kill Freer by a terrorist who went on to kill another Member of Parliament, the MP has received several death threats going back as far as 2011 from groups including Muslims Against Crusades which was later classified as a terrorist organisation by the government and banned. One group invaded an event he was hosting at a mosque and shouted that he was a “Jewish homosexual pig”.

His office was burnt out in December 2023, which the Daily Mail reports was “the final straw” for the politician.

The Times of Israel notes while Freer is not Jewish himself, he is strongly pro-Israel and represents Finchley and Golders Green, one of the few areas in Britain that can be reasonably called “mainly Jewish”, as expressed by the paper.
A spokesman for the Prime Minister said politicians did not deserve “to be abused or intimidated” and that he was “extremely saddened” to be losing his colleague.

Freer is one of a growing number of Conservative politicians to have announced they would not be contesting the next election, which polls suggest the opposition left-wing Labour Party is due to comfortably win. Unlike many of his colleagues, however, Freer has a safe Tory seat and isn’t thought likely to be at threat of being unseated.

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