Sir Keir Starmer’s wife told a court today that she felt ‘sick’ and apprehensive when pro-Palestinian protesters demonstrated outside their family home.

Demonstrators from ‘Youth Demand’ – a youth wing formed by Just Stop Oil – placed children’s shoes in the politician’s front garden in north London and hung a banner on the hedge which read ‘Starmer stop the killing’.

The activists arrived outside the Labour leader’s home on April 9 demanding Sir Keir use his influence to stop the UK’s arms sales to Israel.

Victoria Starmer said today that she drove away in her car when she realised ‘people who were not agreeing with my husband’ had gathered outside.

Sir Keir Starmer and wife Victoria pictured arriving at the Pullman Hotel ahead of Labour’s annual party conference in 2022 in Liverpool

Four lines of very small children’s shoes – symbolising the children killed in Gaza – were laid out in front of their house

A banner was allegedly unfurled outside the Labour leader’s house that read: ‘Starmer stop the killing’, surrounded by red hand prints.

Leonorah Ward, 21, of Leeds, Zosia Lewis, 23, of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and Daniel Formentin, 24, of Leeds, are on trial at Westminster Magistrates’ Court over the demonstration, charged with public order offences under Section 42 of the Criminal Justice and Police Act 2001 and with breaching court bail.

Lady Starmer had just returned from a shopping trip with her son when they spotted the protesters, the court heard.

She drove around the corner before contacting Sir Keir’s office because she ‘didn’t want to stop and be obvious’, she told the court.

Asked by Andrew Morris, defending, if she knew it was a ‘peaceful protest’, Lady Starmer said: ‘It would look like a peaceful protest if it hadn’t been outside my home.’

Put to her by Laura O’Brien, representing Ward, that she did not want the added publicity from the demonstration, she said: ‘That was absolutely not in my mind.’

The court was shown footage shared on social media of the demonstration, which included clips of the three defendants speaking, and police body-worn footage of the protesters being arrested by officers outside the home.

Section 42 powers cover the harassment of a person at their home address if an officer suspects it is causing alarm or distress to the occupant.

Giving evidence at the trial in person, Lady Starmer said: ‘It was my son who first said something like, “oh look”, so I looked, I could see people outside sitting in front of the hedge. 

Leonorah Ward arriving at Westminster Magistrates’ Court, central London, where she along with Daniel Formentin and Zosia Lewis are charged with section 42 of the Criminal Justice and Police Act 2001

‘I could see something on the hedge, I was trying not to look too intently but what I could see was obviously my husbands name, and I could see red, which I guessed to be signifying blood or something.

‘And then I saw people sitting outside the house, I could also see items on the front path.

‘As I said I didn’t want to stop and be obvious so I didn’t get a very good look, I could see a lot of items on the front path leading right up to my front door.’

Asked how the protest made her feel, Lady Starmer told the court: ‘It was intimidating, I felt.

‘When I first drove down the road and saw people and I felt a bit sick to be perfectly honest, I felt apprehensive, uncomfortable, and that I had to drive away.

‘I knew it was people who were angry and not agreeing with my husband.

‘I didn’t know what might happen or what they might have, so it was a bit, yeah, worrying.’

Asked by Prosecutor Jacob Hallam KC Hallam what it was like to have her home’s location broadcasted to the world, Lady Starmer said: ‘It is really worrying, you know, my kids go to school, they come home and it worries me sometimes that such clear picture of the house of where we live is shown, its very worrying.’ 

Mr Hallam KC told the court the harassment was in part constituted by the defendants asking Sir Keir to do something that he was under ‘no obligation to do’, namely stop the war.

‘The prosecution plainly say the defendants were there precisely for that purpose, to represent to Keir Starmer, who is of course a resident of the home outside of which they were, that he should do something he was not under any obligation to do, ie to do that which was emblazoned on the banner.

‘(He’s) not under any obligation to do that because he is, as of April this year, the leader of the opposition party of a country that is not involved in the war in Gaza.’

Laura O’Brien, defending Leonorah Ward, told the court: ‘We absolutely do not accept that (Mr Starmer) has no obligations in relation to the conflict, the slaughtering in Gaza.’

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak had said that ‘no MP should be harassed at their own home’ while Home Secretary James Cleverly slammed the demo as ‘unacceptable’.

Youth Demand had called for a two-way arms embargo on Israel, saying weapons made in the UK were being ‘used to cause genocide’.

Daniel Formentin, arriving at Westminster Magistrates’ Court, central London

Formentin, of Woodside Avenue, Burley, Leeds, has been on conditional bail. He is not allowed to enter any county in the UK other than West Yorkshire save for the purpose of travelling to or from Norway to see his grandparents.

Lewis, of Rokeby Terrace, Newcastle upon Tyne, is on bail on condition not to leave the county of Tyne and Wear.

Ward, of Beechwood Mount, Burley, Leeds, is also on conditional bail.

Metropolitan Police Sergeant Mark Upsdale, who arrived at the scene at around 2pm on the day of the incident and made the order for the arrests, also gave evidence at the trial.

Asked by prosecutor Jacob Hallam KC if the protesters were making their intentions known to the officers, he said: ‘They said there was a plan but ‘we are not willing to tell you’, or something to that effect.’

Sgt Upsdale said holding the protest outside somebody’s house, instead of outside the House of Commons or Sir Keir’s offices, was ‘inappropriate’.

He added: ‘I did not know if they were going to be there 10 minutes or a day.’

Giving evidence Formentin, wearing a white shawl draped over his shoulders, said the protest outside the Starmers’ house was ‘peaceful and silent’.

He said: ‘We took many steps, as many as we could to mitigate any threat or any fear that we might cause, or any inconvenience.

‘In the case of the children’s shoes, we spaced them far enough apart so anyone could easily step over them.

‘We put the banner up, taking great care to make sure we weren’t damaging the hedge in any way.

‘We were not there to coerce or harass or threaten anyone to do what we wanted them to do.

‘We were there to plead with Mr (corr) Starmer, as leader of the opposition, to do his job, which is to oppose – which he is not doing, by allowing our government to continue facilitating mass death in Palestine.’

Asked by Mr Hallam if the protest could have taken place at Sir Keir’s constituency office, the Labour Party HQ or Parliament, Formentin replied: ‘There are always protests happening at Parliament, we know for a fact that there’s no time, people are dying’.

‘What was the purpose of putting the shoes in a line in the way you did?’, asked Mr Hallam.

‘To signify the 15,000 plus dead children that have been murdered in Palestine, partly facilitated by the UK government’, replied Formentin.

He said ‘86% of people in the UK want a ceasefire in Palestine’ and insisted the Labour leader had an ‘obligation’ to represent ‘the people’.

Justifying his actions Formentin told the court Gaza was a ‘distressing topic for everyone.

‘I don’t know how many times you have to see beheaded children and children being carried to their graves in plastic bags because they are not in one piece’.

Youth Demand describes itself as a ‘new youth resistance campaign fighting for an end to genocide’.

Children’s shoes have been used at a number of pro-Palestine demonstrations to signify the children killed in Gaza.

The same group sprayed Labour HQ with red paint, and later claimed that 11 people had been arrested in relation to that incident.

The three deny the charges, and the trial continues.