GB News halted for Keir Starmer alert as guest rages ‘it’s absolutely disgusting’

GB News halted to comment on the Prime Minister’s statement on the Golders Green terrorist attack on Wednesday, April 29 after he called an emergency COBRA (the cabinet committee that is convened to handle matters of national emergency or major disruption) meeting. Commenting on his remarks following the meeting, in which he vowed to tackle the “root causes of extremism and antisemitism”, Reform UK‘s Spokesperson for Home Affairs Zia Yusuf said it was “deeply insulting”.

Speaking on the news channel, Yusuf said: “Fear is the operating word. This is how terrorists operate. They look to engender fear in populations. And I’m afraid and strategic as this is to say, they have been successful because we have had weak kneed politicians for too long. We have had two-tier policing at the expense of the Jewish community for too long. And for the Prime Minister, sit there and say he’s taken action by having another meeting and then naming the attendees of that meeting, I think he, frankly, is deeply insulting.

“He knows what the problem is. And then he talks about how the government is taking action, and talks about how there are potentially state actions.

“Well, we’ve been talking about the IRGC (Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps), basically the terrorist arm of the Iranian regime, for a long time.

“He’s been Prime Minister for almost two years now [and] he still is talking about potentially prescribing it at some point in the future.

“It’s a disgrace. It’s absolutely disgusting. And I think for him to stand there and say that his response and the government taking action is to quote, ‘have another meeting’, only adds to that,” he concluded.

Two Jewish men were stabbed in the attack, and the suspect, who had a history of “serious violence”, is said to have launched himself at an elderly man and charged at “everyone around him”, including police officers.

Sir Keir condemned the attack as “utterly appalling” and an antisemitic terrorist incident. He vowed to tackle the “root causes of extremism and antisemitism” and announced plans to meet with criminal justice agencies to ensure swift justice. He added that his thoughts were with the victims and praised the response of Shomrim and emergency services.

He told broadcasters: “I’ve just held a COBRA meeting, bringing together all the relevant partners, including the Home Secretary, the London Mayor, the Metropolitan (Police) commissioner, to co-ordinate our response and to look at enhanced security.

“I’ve also spoken to CST. Enhanced funding is already in place. We need to increase that to give the level of protection that is needed. We need to take measures to deal with malign state actors, but we also have to be really clear that we need to get to the root causes of extremism and antisemitism, and so that is what we’re doing.”