Two men deny conspiring to set fires linked to UK PM Starmer

LONDON (Reuters) -Two Ukrainian men pleaded not guilty on Friday to conspiracy to carry out arson attacks on houses and a vehicle in London connected to British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, acts which prosecutors said were not being treated as terrorism.

Ukrainians Roman Lavrynovych, 21, and Petro Pochynok, 35, appeared at London's Old Bailey court where they denied a charge of conspiring to damage property by fire with intent to endanger life.

Prosecutors said at previous hearings that the case involved a car Starmer used to own, an apartment in which he used to live, and a property he owns.

A third man, Romanian national Stanislav Carpiuc, 27, who was also charged in connection with the incidents, was not asked to enter a plea at this stage.

Prosecutor Sarah Przybylska said they were not presenting the case as being connected to terrorism or national security, and Judge Bobbie Cheema-Grubb said the circumstances of the offences were "somewhat opaque" at the moment.

Over five days in May, police were called to three fires in north London that seemingly targeted the British prime minister.

Police said the first fire involved a Toyota RAV4 car which Starmer had sold to a neighbour. Three days later, there was a blaze at a property where Starmer previously resided and the following day there was an attack on a house he still owns.

Starmer, who has lived at his official 10 Downing Street residence in central London since becoming prime minister in July 2024, previously called the incidents "an attack on all of us, on our democracy and the values we stand for".

(Reporting by Michael Holden and Sam Tobin; editing by Mark Heinrich)