A Green Party local election candidate has been arrested on suspicion of stirring up racial hatred after allegedly posting antisemitic content on social media, the Metropolitan Police has confirmed.
Two women—identified as Saiqa Ali, 57, and Sabine Mairey, 54—were detained on Thursday morning under Section 19 of the Public Order Act 1986, which makes it an offence to publish or distribute written material that is threatening, abusive or insulting with the intent to stir up racial hatred, or where such hatred is likely to be stirred up. The arrests follow a police investigation launched after concerns were reported on 21 April. Both women remain in custody.
Ali was a candidate for Streatham St Leonard’s ward and Mairey for Lambeth’s Clapham Town ward, both in south London. Mention of Ali as a candidate has been removed from the Lambeth Greens’ website. The Green Party declined to comment, with a spokesperson saying: “This is now a police matter. We won’t be commenting at this stage.”
The alleged social media posts
The posts, reportedly seen by officers, are alleged to contain a range of antisemitic and conspiratorial content. Sabine Mairey is said to have shared a post reading: “Ramming a synagogue isn’t antisemitism. It’s revenge,” accompanied by an image of two children she claimed were “murdered by Israel.” In other now-deleted posts she reportedly claimed that the 9/11 attacks were an Israeli “false-flag attack” and that the British government is overrepresented with “Zionist Jews.”
Further posts allegedly suggested that Israel uses the Holocaust to justify violence against Palestinians and that Nazi Germany had to “hide what they were doing,” implying that Israel does not. One post is said to have included a picture of a serpent marked with the Star of David choking the world.
Saiqa Ali, meanwhile, allegedly posted an image of an armed man wearing a Hamas headband with the slogan “Resistance is freedom.” In September 2024 she reportedly posted a similar picture of an armed Hamas fighter with the same slogan. Ali had previously apologised for any offence or distress caused by her social media activity, stating that her comments were rooted in concern for the humanitarian situation in the Middle East.
The Met Police said: “Police have arrested two women, aged 57 and 54, on suspicion of stirring up racial hatred online, an offence under section 19 of the Public Order Act 1986. The arrests follow an investigation launched after concerns were reported to police on Tuesday, 21 April about antisemitic material that had been posted online.”
Wider context: attacks and government response
The arrests came just hours after a stabbing incident in Golders Green, north-west London, was declared a terrorist incident. Two Jewish men—Moshe Shine, 76, and Shlome Rand, 34—were stabbed on Wednesday 29 April. The suspect, Essa Suleiman, a 45-year-old British national born in Somalia, was arrested at the scene after being tasered. Counterterrorism officers are leading the investigation. It emerged that Suleiman had been referred to the Prevent counter-terrorism scheme in 2020 but was cleared within six weeks. He has a history of serious violence and mental health issues.
The attack is the latest in a series targeting the Jewish community in north-west London. In late March 2026, four Jewish community ambulances were destroyed by fire in Golders Green, and there have been arson attacks on Jewish sites. The Community Security Trust (CST), which receives government funding for security measures, has been active in the area. In October 2023 the CST received £3 million, and in February 2024 the then-prime minister announced a £72 million security package through 2028.
Following the Golders Green stabbing, the government announced an additional £25 million investment to increase security for Jewish communities, bringing the total commitment this year to £58 million. The funding will be used for enhanced policing, security at synagogues, schools and community centres.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer was heckled as he arrived at a Jewish community ambulance centre in Golders Green on Thursday. Later, in an address to the nation, he said: “At moments like this, we often say, this is not Britain, that these attacks are an affront to British values, to British tolerance, British decency. But they keep happening, don’t they?” He added: “Antisemitism is an old, old hatred, history shows that the roots are deep, and if you turn away, it grows back. Yet, far too many people in this country diminish it. They either don’t see it or they don’t want to see it.”
The prime minister has vowed to tackle the “root causes of extremism and antisemitism” and called for prosecutions against those using slogans such as “globalise the intifada,” which he described as “racism” and encouraging “terrorism against Jews.”
The arrests and the attack have also exposed internal tensions within the Green Party. The party’s leader, Zack Polanski, who is Jewish, faced criticism for reposting a comment that suggested police used excessive force in subduing the Golders Green attacker. He has since deleted the post. Meanwhile, the party’s deputy leader, Mothin Ali, has urged suspended members to seek legal advice and suggested a “class action” against the party, expressing concern over suspensions related to antisemitism allegations.
In a separate development, the Metropolitan Police announced in April 2026 that it had made over 20 arrests as part of a crackdown on antisemitic hate crimes. In February 2022, Tahra Ahmed was jailed for 11 months for posting antisemitic abuse on Facebook, including claims related to the Grenfell Tower fire.
