Antisemitic Attacks

Before I call the Minister to make a statement on recent antisemitic attacks, I should inform the House that in some cases, charges have been brought. Those cases, including the attacks on the Hatzola community ambulance services and at the Manchester synagogue, are therefore sub judice. In respect of more recent incidents in Kenton and Finchley, arrests have been made but charges have not yet been brought. I remind hon. Members that they should not refer to the details of any specific cases currently before the courts, and that they should exercise caution with respect to any specific cases that might subsequently come before the courts, in order not to prejudice those proceedings.

With permission, I will make a statement about the appalling incidents targeting British Jews and opponents of the Iranian regime over recent days. I will begin with the facts. Counter-terrorism police have confirmed that they are investigating a series of arson attacks and incidents that have occurred in London over recent days. These include an arson attack at a synagogue in Finchley on Wednesday 15 April; a suspected arson attack targeting premises in Hendon linked to a Jewish charity on Friday 17 April; a suspected arson attack targeting a synagogue in Harrow on the evening of Saturday 18 April; and a further incident in the early hours of yesterday morning outside residential premises in Finchley and opposite a synagogue.

These events follow the arson attack on a volunteer-led ambulance service run by the Jewish community in Golders Green on 23 March. Last week, there was also an attempted arson attack on a Persian-language media organisation that has previously been the target of serious threats linked to the Iranian regime and its proxies. Eight arrests have now been made in connection with that incident, and four people have been charged. Jewish communities across the UK will be distressed and dismayed by these abhorrent attacks, and I know that I speak for hon. Members from right across the House when I say that there is no place in British life for antisemitism. Attacks on British Jews are attacks on all of us, and we will do whatever it takes to stop the cowards and thugs who seek to intimidate our Jewish communities.

The police response over the weekend has been decisive. Fifteen arrests have already been made. In addition, a range of capabilities have been deployed to deter potential attackers and to reassure communities. Over the weekend, the Metropolitan police significantly increased the number of officers in and around north-west London. Uniformed and plain-clothes officers have maintained a strong presence around Barnet, and additional stop-and-search powers have been introduced across the borough. Response vehicles and Counter Terrorism Policing resources have been deployed, alongside local policing, to respond to potential threats.

To ensure the police response is a sustainable one, the Government have already committed an additional £5 million for this financial year to support the deployment of specialist officers across the country to support vulnerable communities under Project Servator. That is in addition to the record £73.4 million annual funding for protective security at Jewish, Muslim and other faith sites.

This morning, I visited Finchley Reform synagogue with the deputy commissioner and the local MP, my hon. and learned Friend the Member for Finchley and Golders Green (Sarah Sackman). I met community leaders and saw at first hand the strengthened police presence and the resilience of those affected, and I reaffirmed our commitment to protect all those who have been targeted.

I call the shadow Minister.

I thank the Minister for advance sight of his statement. The attacks on our Jewish community have become a national emergency. In recent weeks, we have seen multiple attacks against cultural sites and synagogues. The Jewish community has been targeted again and again. As a result, many Jewish people are, tragically, considering leaving the UK.

When the shadow Home Secretary visited the community in Golders Green just after the attack on the Hatzola ambulances, he was told that they feel abandoned by the Government. That morning, he spoke to a young mother who said she was afraid to send her children to school. Matt Jukes, the Met police deputy commissioner, said this morning:

“We’ve…seen hate crime in our communities before…but now what we’ve got is the prospect of a foreign state actually using that as a mechanism to sow discord…and to create anxiety in our communities”.

Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamia, an Islamist militant group with links to Iran—indeed, many would say it is a proxy for Iran—has claimed responsibility for five incidents targeting Jewish sites in London, including the firebombing of the Hatzola ambulances in Golders Green and the attempted drone attack on the Israeli embassy. Vicki Evans, the senior national co-ordinator for Counter Terrorism Policing, told reporters on Sunday:

“As the conflict in the middle east continues to evolve, Counter Terrorism Policing and our partners remain alive to the threat of Iranian hostile activity in the UK.”

How much more Iranian action on our UK soil is needed before the Government act to proscribe the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps? In opposition, Labour Members, including the then shadow Home Secretary—now the Foreign Secretary—said they would do this, but almost two years after winning power, they have done nothing. Many other countries have acted by proscribing the IRGC, including the USA, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, and earlier this year even the European Union did so, so why have this Government not delivered on their election promise to proscribe the IRGC? If emergency legislation is needed, the Minister will have our support to get it rapidly through Parliament. Will he accept our offer now from the Dispatch Box?

I hope that the shadow Minister will accept that the Government’s response is not about warm words, but about decisive, targeted and effective activity, and that is what we have seen over the past few days.

Let me agree with the hon. Gentleman in recognising the fear and distress that exists within our Jewish communities. It is abhorrent that members of our Jewish community are considering their long-term future in the United Kingdom. Collectively, I am sure we want to assure them that we will do everything we possibly can to make sure that the United Kingdom is a safe place for them and their families, but I recognise the fear and distress they are feeling at the moment. That is why we are making sure that our response is proportionate and urgent in the way that I set out earlier in my remarks.

The shadow Minister, entirely reasonably, raised the spectre of the threat we face from Iran. I have made these points previously, but for the purpose of clarification let me tell him and the House precisely what we are doing to combat the specific threat from Iran. The Government specified Iran under the enhanced tier of the foreign influence registration scheme, which is a useful operational tool that will bolster our oversight of Iran’s influence and activities here in the UK. We have sanctioned more than 550 Iranian individuals and entities, including the IRGC in its entirety. He mentioned proscription. He will know that the Government have committed to take forward the recommendations by Jonathan Hall KC, including the creation of a new proscription-like power to help tackle malign activity by state and non-state linked actors. We have also engaged in extensive activity to go after the criminal networks and enablers that the Iranian intelligence services use to carry out their work, as well as to target those who assist the IRGC and others to launder their money here in the United Kingdom.

The role of the police force right around the country is very important to that work, which is why we have rolled out new training to all frontline police officers to increase their understanding of state threats. We are strengthening our immigration system against Iranian infiltration, including those who promote Iranian interference in the UK. We are also doing this in concert with our allies. We are engaging internationally on transnational Iranian threats, including joining 13 other countries in condemning Iranian intelligence activities, both in the United Kingdom and globally.

On Saturday, my constituents awoke to the news of a despicable antisemitic attack at the heart of our community, at the former headquarters of Jewish Futures on Hendon Way. As the Minister said, this is not an isolated incident; we have seen the abhorrent attacks on Hatzola just a mile down the road in Golders Green, and on Finchley Reform and Kenton United synagogues, both nearby. Many of my constituents face discrimination and abuse every single day for no other reason than that they are Jewish. I am working intensively with the police and I am grateful for all they are doing, but, as the Prime Minister has said, we must not just ensure that our Jewish community is safe; we must ensure that Jewish people in Hendon and across the whole country are able to live full and proud Jewish lives, free from fear. Will the Minister share more about what additional measures are being taken both to protect the community in the wake of these despicable attacks and to ensure that the Jewish members of my community are not forced to live smaller Jewish lives?

I am very grateful to my hon. Friend for the assiduous representation of his constituents and his constituency. The threats he describes are abhorrent and completely unacceptable. The notion that some members of our Jewish communities might be forced to live less Jewish lives is totally unacceptable. It is the Government’s responsibility to ensure that our response is proportionate to that threat. Along with ministerial colleagues in the Department, we have been in constant contact with the Metropolitan police over the past few days. I met Deputy Commissioner Matt Jukes this morning to look at what more we can do to ensure that the police have the resources they need.

I want to take this opportunity to thank the police for their work in recent times, which has been an impressive effort. They have stepped up to the plate and their response has been impressive, but we need to ensure that, collectively, we have the resources in place to continue that for as long as is necessary, to provide the reassurance required in constituencies such as the one that my hon. Friend is proud to represent. I give him an assurance of the seriousness with which we take this matter and I would be very happy to discuss it with him further.

I call the Liberal Democrat spokesperson.

On behalf of the Liberal Democrats, I want to extend my sympathies to the Jewish community, who will understandably be worried about the disturbing uptick in violence against their community across Britain.

The series of arson attacks on Jewish sites in recent days is an abhorrent trend. The pattern of attacks on Britain’s Jews is clear to see. Without serious intervention, it is only a matter of time before we see another attack like that seen in Manchester last year. We are grateful to hear the Minister’s words today on the action being taken. We must recognise that we have a huge antisemitism problem in this country. We in this House must re-state that again and again until the problem has been stamped out. But that is not enough; the political system must also take action to tackle its root causes.

Earlier today, I met groups representing British Jews, including the Community Security Trust. They told me that British Jews are feeling extremely vulnerable, with some questioning their long-term security in this country. That such sentiment is held by any minority group in Britain in 2026 must give this House pause for thought. That the sentiment is held by the Jewish community, given the centuries of persecution they have suffered, is a tragedy.

A group called Ashab al-Yamin has claimed responsibility for a number of attacks, and others across Europe. What are Ministers doing with our European partners to tackle the cross-country and cross-continent threat that this organisation and others pose? Given the potential links with the IRGC, will the Minister act swiftly to proscribe it? Does he accept that, if those links are substantiated, proscription would be more likely to deliver justice for the Jewish community?

We know that hostile foreign states sometimes try to recruit individuals online to carry out these kinds of attacks on British people. There are rumours that social media has been the recruitment tool used. Does the Minister know what the social media companies are doing to identify, monitor and clamp down on that practice? What are Ministers doing to ensure that social media companies themselves are taking action?

I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for a series of entirely sensible and constructive points. He is absolutely right to raise both the abhorrent nature of the threat and the spectre of what happened in Manchester. Those of us with the privilege of serving in government to ensure our national security and keep our public safe have spent a lot of time looking very closely at what happened in Manchester. I give the hon. Gentleman and the House an absolute assurance that we work around the clock to try to ensure that these terrible attacks cannot happen and that we ensure that our intelligence services and police have the resources they need to do the important job that we ask of them.

I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for mentioning the Community Security Trust—I suspect that every Member of the House knows about it—which does incredibly important work and is held in the very highest regard. I am proud of the resources that this Government have put into that work. He is also right to make the point that we need to tackle this threat via the root causes; walls and cameras and defences are an important part of our response, but they are not the only part. That is why I spoke a moment ago about the need to tackle extremism.

The hon. Gentleman asked specifically about international engagement, and he is right to do so. I can give him an assurance that we work very closely with our international partners—particularly in Europe, but also in the middle east and further afield—and that there is a lot of activity alongside our partners to identify the particular nature of the threat we are facing collectively. I assure him that whatever tools and whatever legislative arrangement is required, we will bring it forward.

The Minister will be aware that I have a thriving Jewish community in my constituency—a community that I grew up in and which I feel very protective of. I want to share with the Minister an email from my constituent Richard, who said that

“many in the community are fearful”.

He said that some are not attending synagogue and communal events, and that Sunday schools for children are taking place behind thick security cordons. Richard’s niece attends a Jewish primary school, which had two police officers at the gate this morning. He went on to say:

“Instead of action, we are receiving platitudes from those in power. Why hasn’t your government proscribed the IRGC, who are directly involved in terror against Britain’s Jewish community and against British interests.”

I ask the Minister, who recently visited my constituency and had a conversation with community leaders, what shall I reply to my constituent Richard—why have the Government not proscribed the IRGC?

I am grateful to my hon. Friend, who has raised her concerns diligently with me on a number of occasions. I had the privilege recently of visiting JW3, in her constituency, which is a truly inspiring place. I take this opportunity to pay tribute to Raymond, the chief executive officer, and to all the staff and volunteers for the incredibly important work that they do. I know it is hugely appreciated in my hon. Friend’s community.

The threat that my hon. Friend describes is totally unacceptable, and I can give her an absolute assurance to take back to her constituents of how seriously we take that threat. I also assure her that we will bring forward and use all the tools at our disposal. There has been a lot of commentary about proscribing the IRGC, and I completely understand why. She will understand that the Government have made a commitment to bring forward a legislative tool that was recommended by Jonathan Hall. It was this Government’s view that we did not have the appropriate legislative mechanism to proscribe a state-backed entity, which is why we have made a commitment to bring forward that particular tool. However, she should be assured that we will not wait for that particular legislative tool to do everything necessary to combat and counter the work of the IRGC. I set out the work we are doing to counter the threat from Iran a moment ago, and I hope that provides some assurance to her and to her constituents.

I call the Chair of the Home Affairs Committee.

I am sure that everyone in this House will have heard stories from friends and constituents who are unable to enjoy a full Jewish life in the way that they should. The Minister is right that this is not just about putting in place more police and security, but about driving out the root cause of antisemitism. In this case, it does seem that the attacks are driven by foreign state actors, so I must agree with the calls for the proscription of the IRGC. This is something that the Government must now look at urgently.

I am grateful to the right hon. Lady for the work she does with her Select Committee, and she is right in the point she makes about the root causes. The Government have to ensure that not only are we tackling the root causes, but we have appropriate security and defence mechanisms in place. She will understand the rigour with which Jonathan Hall conducts his work on behalf of the Government. He is somebody with great credibility and experience in this field. It was his view that we do not currently have the appropriate legislative mechanism in order to properly proscribe a state entity, but, as I said to my hon. Friend the Member for Hampstead and Highgate (Tulip Siddiq) a moment ago, that will not stop this Government ensuring that we have all the measures in place. We have made a commitment to bring forward that legislative tool, and that is what we will do.

Ministers will be aware that the charity sector is being exploited by extremists, with record amounts of money being pumped into British-based organisations with charitable status by our adversaries and hostile states. While these extremists often target Britain’s Jews, the threats go far beyond them—they do not stop with the Jewish community. Will the Minister give us an assurance that the Charity Commission will be granted updated robust powers in the next legislative Session so that it can tackle these growing threats?