Sir Keir Starmer says his sister-in-law could have been killed when his house was firebombed.
The attack saw the Prime Minister’s former private home set alight in the early hours of May 12, the day after a flat he had previously lived in and a car he had sold to a neighbour both caught fire.
Starmer had let the £2million north London property to his sister-in-law for a peppercorn rent when he moved into Number 10.
And now he says that had she been asleep she could have been killed in her bed.
‘She happened to still be awake,’ he told The Observer. ‘So she heard the noise and got the fire brigade. But it could have been a different story.’
Three men have been charged with the alleged arson campaign and remanded in custody, due to stand trial next year.
The horror came just hours before he gave a press conference on uncontrolled immigration, which he has since said he ‘deeply regrets’.
He said he and wife Lady Victoria had been ‘really shaken up’ before he warned mass immigration risks turning Britain into an ‘island of strangers’, in a talk that was seen to be marking a tough new approach to combat the political threat posed by Reform.
The attack saw the Prime Minister’s former private home set alight in the early hours of May 12, the day after a flat he had previously lived in and a car he had sold to a neighbour both caught fire
FIRE ONE: Exclusive MailOnline footage shows the dark blue Toyota Rav 4 engulfed in flames as firefighters fought the blaze on VE Day
FIRE TWO: A separate blaze was set on May 11 at the front door of a converted house in Islington, where the Labour leader had lived in his early career. One person had to be rescued by firefighters after that attack
FIRE THREE: In the early hours of May 12, a fire was started at a Kentish Town property where Sir Keir had lived with his family
But Sir Keir said he realised the language ‘wasn’t right’ after critics claimed it had echoes of Enoch Powell’s Rivers of Blood speech.
At the time, Downing Street backed the remarks and said Sir Keir ‘completely rejects’ suggestions he had echoed Powell’s infamous ‘rivers of blood’ speech – which was blamed for inflaming racial tensions in the 1960s.
Polling also suggested that most Brits did not have a problem with his use of the phrase.
But he told the newspaper: ‘It’s fair to say I wasn’t in the best state to make a big speech… I was really, really worried. I almost said: ‘I won’t do the bloody press conference.’
‘Vic was really shaken up as, in truth, was I. It was just a case of reading the words out and getting through it somehow… so I could get back to them.’
The alleged arson campaign included three fires across London last month, targeting addresses connected to Prime Minister Sir Keir.
In the early hours of May 12, a fire was started at a Kentish Town property where Sir Keir had lived with his family.
Just four days earlier, on May 8, a Toyota Rav 4, which had once belonged to Sir Keir before he sold it to a neighbour, was torched on the same street.
Firefighters tackling the burning car in the same north London street where Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has his property
A separate blaze was set on May 11 at the front door of a converted house in Islington, where the Labour leader had lived in his early career. One person had to be rescued by firefighters after that attack.
Ukrainian national Lavrynovych, from Lewisham, has been charged with three counts of arson with intent to endanger life relating to each of the incidents.
Carpiuc, a Romanian national from Romford, east London, and fellow Ukrainian Pochynok, of Islington, are each accused of one count of conspiracy to commit arson with intent to endanger life between April 17 and May 13.
Lavrynovych is said to have bought fuel from B&Q in the days leading up to the attacks, allegedly using it to set the fires.
Carpiuc, who had posted on a modelling website that he wants to be the ‘top male model in the world,’ previously studied business at Canterbury Christ Church University and was awaiting his results.
He had been working in construction since finishing his course in January.
Ms Justice Cheema Grubb told the court the case would next be heard on October 17 for a plea and trial preparation hearing.
She also confirmed that a provisional trial date has been set for April 27 next year before a High Court judge at the Old Bailey.
The hybrid vehicle was left completely wrecked by the blaze after Starmer sold it to a neighbour
Stanislav Carpiuc, 26, has been charged with conspiring with ‘others unknown’ over the arsons
Lavrynovych, of Sydenham, south-east London has been charged with three counts of arson with intent to endanger life
All three men have been remanded in custody.
Meanwhile, a fourth man, aged 48, was arrested at Stansted Airport on Monday on suspicion of conspiracy to commit arson with intent to endanger life in connection with the attacks.
He has since been released on bail pending further enquiries, the Metropolitan Police confirmed.
The PM branded the arson attacks which targeted him as ‘an attack on all of us, on democracy and the values that we stand for’.
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch condemned the attacks as ‘completely unacceptable’.
