Piers Corbyn arrested on suspicion of urging people to burn MPs' offices down
19 December 2021, 13:34
Piers Corbyn has been arrested on suspicion of encouraging people to burn down the offices of MPs who voted in favour of coronavirus restrictions.
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In a statement, the Met Police said a man in his 70s had been arrested on suspicion of encouragement to commit arson.
"He was arrested in Southwark at around 01:45hrs on Sunday, 19 December," the statement went on.
"The arrest relates to a video posted online in which people were encouraged to burn down MPs’ offices.
"The man remains in custody at a central London police station."
Whilst the force did not name Mr Corbyn, it said earlier it was assessing a video that appeared to show Mr Corbyn, 74, calling for MP's offices to be burned down if they voted in favour of the Government's Plan B measures earlier this week.
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The video, which went viral on social media, appears to show Mr Corbyn addressing crowds outside Downing Street at an anti-vaccine protest on Saturday.
The brother of former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn appears to tell the crowd: "You’ve got to get a list of [MPs who voted in favour of the measures] … and if your MP is one of them, go to their offices and, well, I would recommend burning them down, okay? But I can’t say that on air."
Mr Corbyn also appeared to urge the crowd to "hammer to death those scum who have decided to go ahead with introducing new fascism".
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Home Secretary Priti Patel described the video as "sickening" on Saturday night, writing in a tweet: "The Piers Corbyn video is sickening.
"I back the police to take the strongest possible action against him."
Labour MP Yvette Cooper also condemned the video, calling it "appalling" and pointing out "we have lost 2 MPs to terrible violence in recent years - we know how incredibly serious this is".
Mayor of London Sadiq Khan said the comments were "despicable and dangerous".
