London attack: Jemima Goldsmith slaps down little brother in immigration row over terror atrocity

Twitter spat: Jemima Khan is the sister of Ben and Zac Goldsmith
Dave Benett
Sebastian Mann4 June 2017
WEST END FINAL

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Jemima Goldsmith and her brother today clashed publicly in a bitter row on Twitter following last night's attack in London Bridge.

Zac Goldsmith’s siblings exchanged angry tweets after wealthy financier Ben Goldsmith linked the atrocity to mass immigration.

Seven people died and dozens more were injured by terrorists who mowed down pedestrians on London Bridge and launched a knife attack in Borough Market.

Mr Goldsmith, 36, said British people were “starting to understand what life is like in Israel, under the constant threat of attack”.

Ben Goldsmith with his wife Jemima Jones
Dave Benett/Getty Images

He invoked Enoch Powell’s famous “Rivers of blood” speech from 1968 and asked: “How much blood constitutes a river? And when might we acknowledge that perhaps Enoch Powell had a point on the dangers of mass migration.”

Journalist Ms Goldsmith, also known as Jemima Khan, hit back and tweeted: “Hysteria and scare-mongering doesn’t help. London is a very safe city, relatively speaking.”

To her near two million followers, the 43-year-old claimed more people die each year in dog attacks and said: “1 in 4 jihadist convictions is a white or black convert to Islam. How does banning immigration help that?”

And in another tweet responding to her younger brother she reminded him he was “the grandson of a German Jewish immigrant”.

The siblings are the children of the late billionaire financier Sir James Goldsmith, who was also the father of unsuccessful London mayoral candidate Zac Goldsmith.

The row comes as police this morning raided a block of flats in east London where they made twelve arrests in connection with the attack.

Armed officers stormed flats in Kings Road, Barking, around 7am on Sunday, just hours after three suspects launched a horrific attack on the capital, killing seven people and injuring 48.

A white van mowed down pedestrians on London Bridge shortly after 10pm before the attackers, wielding knives and a machete and wearing fake suicide vests, stabbed revellers enjoying nights out in nearby Borough Market.

The attackers were shot dead by police marksmen just eight minutes after terrified bystanders dialled 999.

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