Former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, London Mayor Sadiq Khan and Labour MP Diane Abbott have been urged to apologise after criticising the police over the shooting of Chris Kaba.
It comes after a jury at the Old Bailey took just three hours to clear Martyn Blake of murdering Kaba following a three-week trial, after the 23-year-old was stopped by armed police and shot in South London in 2022.
Following the verdict, it was revealed Kaba was a “core member” of the most dangerous street gang in his neighbourhood. His mother had applied for her son’s background to remain secret pending an inquest, although no date had been set. His family insisted Kaba had turned his life around and wanted to be an architect.
The then Labour MP for Islington North attended a protest shortly after the shooting in 2022, alongside Brit Award winning rapper Stormzy, Labour MP Bell Ribeiro-Addy and former deputy Labour leader Harriet Harman.
Corbyn said days after the shooting: “No family should have to go through the pain Chris Kaba’s family have suffered following his killing last week. My thoughts are with them as they fight for justice and accountability for his death.”
Crossbench peer and former Met commissioner Lord Stevens said many people simply assumed that Kaba was an entirely innocent man.
He said: “People need to stop and think. I believe the liberal Left should apologise, now it has come out that his background included him having been involved in a shooting and chasing a man outside a night just days before his death…Let’s have an acceptance of what he was and what he did.”
Speaking in the Commons yesterday, Ribeiro-Addy said: “The fatal shooting of Chris Kaba caused pain to his family and considerable fear and anger, not only in my community but across London, and this House must understand that the concerns being raised are not anti-police but pro-accountability.”
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Sir Keir Starmer ‘unlikely’ to meet Harris ahead of polling day
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer arrives in Apia, Samoa
PA
The Prime Minister is unlikely to meet with Vice President Kamala Harris before Americans go to the polls.
Sir Keir Starmer met with Donald Trump when he was in New York in September, and at the time said he wanted to meet both presidential candidates. However, as both campaigns enter the final week ahead of the November 5 poll, and Starmer is in Samoa for a Commonwealth summit, it has been accepted the window of opportunity for such a meeting is closing.
It comes as Labour is currently under fire from the Trump-Vance campaign after staff members joined Democrat election efforts. Trump’s team has filed an official complaint with US federal election authorities, in which they claim the UK Labour Party has “made, and the Harris campaign has accepted, illegal foreign national contributions.”
The Prime Minister insisted any members of his party were in the US on an entirely voluntary basis in their spare time, comparing the arrangement to similar situations during previous elections.