Man arrested after ‘antisemitic’ election posters put up in Tower Hamlets

A 36-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of a racially aggravated public order offence after posters that depicted Jewish people as “Labour’s monsters” were put up in London, with police describing the bill posters as “antisemitic”.

As described by The Telegraph, the flyers were posted back in May, ahead of the local elections; a report submitted to the Metropolitan Police provided examples of the offending images, and noted that they did not “carry a printer’s imprint or the name and address of the promoter, as required by law”, potentially putting them in breach of the Representation of the People Act relating to election literature.

In one example, a bestial-looking image of an IDF soldier was used, with the accompanying words being “Labour’s Monsters”. The report described this as a “monstrous characterisation… is anchored specifically in Jewish religious identity markers, not Israeli military conduct generally. This stirs up hatred against Jewish people.” It suggested that the image was “selected to appear menacing”.

The complaint added: “The monstrous characterisation is anchored specifically in Jewish religious identity markers, not Israeli military conduct generally. This stirs up hatred against Jewish people.

Another poster featured a picture of dozens of local Labour party campaigners, underneath words claiming that “Labour are complicit in genocide”.

A Met Police spokesman said: “On Thursday, 1 October, a 36-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of a racially aggravated public order offence following an incident in May 2026, in which several antisemitic posters were displayed across Tower Hamlets. He was released on bail while police continue their inquiries.

“We know this incident caused significant concern at the time. Antisemitism has absolutely no place in London and we are committed to tackling hate crime of all kinds.”