Minister to Exit Politics Amid Death Threats and Arson Attack on Office

An MP has called for more effective prosecution of anti-Semitism, while a think tank branded the events ’shocking and reprehensible.’

MP Mike Freer talks with pupils in a year 10 art class in Wren academy school in Finchley, London, on Dec. 14, 2023. Richard Pohle - WPA Pool/Getty Images

A government minister has announced his decision not to seek reelection, primarily over a series of death threats from Islamic extremist groups and a recent arson attack on his constituency office.

Conservative justice minister Mike Freer, who has represented London’s Finchley and Golders Green since 2010, highlighted a harrowing experience in which he narrowly escaped an attack by Ali Harbi Ali, the perpetrator who later murdered Sir David Amess, MP for Southend West.