Antisemitic Attacks

Debate between Lord Hanson of Flint and Lord Palmer of Childs Hill

Monday 27th April 2026 Lords Chamber

[Lord Palmer of Childs Hill (LD)]

My Lords, I thank the noble Lord, Lord Wolfson, for his views. As a member of the Jewish community, I am grateful for all the speeches of sympathy that have been and are being extended to the Jewish community. I am personally grateful that between the First and Second World Wars my late mother was able to move to Britain from Szreńsk in north central Poland. Sadly, her mother and other family members were never heard of again after 1945. Many came to this country to escape antisemitism and were welcomed and made able to make good lives for themselves and their children. This makes it even more horrifying that we have seen recently an upsurge in violence, hate speeches and demonstrations against the Jewish population.

Antisemitism is not new, as explained by the noble Lord, but it is now made more obvious by the attacks on Jewish sites in the UK and elsewhere. I could not previously have imagined a world where many British Jews are feeling very vulnerable and even doubting their long-term security in Britain. As has been mentioned, a pro-Iranian group, Harakat Ashab al-Yamin, has claimed responsibility, although I believe that other groups and individuals are involved.

It should influence this debate to list recent attacks. In March there were attacks in Greece, Belgium, the Netherlands and France. Then, nearer to home, there was the arson attack on Hatzola ambulances in my local Jewish community. On 15 April there was an arson attack at Finchley Reform Synagogue, again local to me. Also in April there was an arson attack in Park Royal, a drone attack on the Israeli embassy, an arson attack on a Jewish charity and an arson attack on Kenton shul—that is just in April. We must not forget the October 2025 attack on Heaton Park shul in Manchester, which killed two people. We must ask ourselves whether this can be tolerated.

We in the UK are grateful for all this country has done to enable the Jewish community to thrive here and are horrified by the increase in antisemitism and attacks on Jewish premises, synagogues and charities. The answer we hear seems to be an increase in security, as noted by the noble Lord about his trip to the restaurant, and the community is grateful for the efforts of the police and the CST, including extra funds for this purpose. However, no other community needs to have its kids’ schools, places of worship and community behind security-guarded walls—a world where our kids and teens are afraid to show their Jewish identity and are not safe to wear a Magen David or a yarmulke head covering, as has been stated.

I spoke to Rabbi Ben Kurzer, my local community rabbi, who said:

“Whilst the Jewish community is strong and resilient and continues to flourish, this situation is unacceptable for us as a nation. As with antisemitism throughout the ages, this is not a Jewish problem, it is a societal one. The hate that begins with the Jews will not end with the Jews. Jewish tradition teaches that Moses, in ancient Egypt, looked round and realised that there was no one to stand up against the aggressors and that was why he took the lead—to paraphrase our Sages, ‘In a place where there is no person stepping forward, try to be that person’’.


I say we need to go to the source of and incitement to this violence. I would like to hear what the Minister has to say about what they intend to do about what some call hate marches—I think they are; some people do not—and demonstrations that fuel this antisemitism. I keep waiting for it, but when is that dreadful organisation, the IRGC, actually going to be banned as a terrorist organisation? It has been on the cards for such a long time.

Can the Minister say that the Government will seek to explain what Zionism means? It is a desire for a homeland for the Jews in Israel. Surely the rise in UK antisemitism makes the need for Zionism an absolute must for many in the community. The word “anti-Zionism” is being increasingly used as an acceptable excuse for antisemitic sentiments. There needs to be a line between objecting to events outside the UK and terrorising a section of the UK of which I am part. I look forward to the Minister’s response.

[The Minister of State, Home Office (Lord Hanson of Flint) (Lab)]

My Lords, I am grateful to the noble Lords, Lord Wolfson of Tredegar and Lord Palmer of Childs Hill, for their comments, and for their general support for the action the Government are taking.

I begin by condemning antisemitic actions by those who are undertaking them. There is no place for antisemitism in our society. There is no place for individuals not being able to enjoy and share and work with their religion and show that visibly. The Government will take action to ensure that we protect those rights for the Jewish community.

I should just say to the noble Lord, Lord Wolfson, that while the Statement was arranged by the usual channels for today, I am happy to do it at any time; I could have done it last week. The Statement made clear that there were 26 arrests following the activities last week; there have been eight charges and one conviction to date. It is important that we, as both noble Lords have said, tackle not just the protective elements of this—I do not want to have a situation whereby individuals have to have that protective security around them in the long term—but those root causes as a whole. I say to both noble Lords that the £28.4 million given to the Community Security Trust is a useful resource to help protect society from antisemitism, and we have recently added £5 million to that.

To go to the heart of the points that have been made about tackling the long-term root causes, the social cohesion strategy called Protecting What Matters that the Government have recently announced has allocated £800 million, but it is also looking at a whole range of what I would call proactive measures that I think the noble Lord will welcome. These include preventing hate preachers entering the United Kingdom; expanding the global visa taskforce; publishing an annual state of extremism report; embedding the 2024 definition of extremism across government; and looking to work with the noble Lord, Lord Mann, and Dame Penny Mordaunt on the commission with the Board of Deputies of British Jews on the question of antisemitism as a whole.

We also have to—this goes to the long-term issues that the noble Lord mentioned—look at combating antisemitism across all elements of society, including reviewing the public order and hate legislation, which is being undertaken by the noble Lord, Lord Macdonald of River Glaven, and looking at universities, schools and colleges, where we have committed some £7 million of resource to help clamp down on antisemitic extremism. We also had the review of Prevent in 2023, which made a number of recommendations that we have brought into power.

I say to the noble Lord, Lord Palmer of Childs Hill, that we have looked at the issue of hate marches. This very day we have completed the Crime and Policing Bill, which is now going for potential Royal Assent very shortly. In that there are definitive powers to redirect marches, to redirect persistently aggressive marches and to give police additional powers to do that. It is also important that we take on board a point that both noble Lords have mentioned: the question of how we deal with this in the longer term. It is important that the police have intelligence-led policing, looking at where there are organisations and groups that are causing potential antisemitism. We have the arrests that have been made to date. With regard to the organisations that have claimed responsibility for these attacks, I want to take that at face value for the moment. The police have a job to do. The police have a job to see whether those organisations are responsible, or whether they are proxies for potential state actors that are responsible. We will receive reports from the police. I hope that we can allow the police to do their job and to investigate and report back. If action is required, we will consider taking it in due course.

We have had significant discussion around Iran, and I know the sensitivities and concerns surrounding that. As I said, we have placed the entire Iranian Government on the foreign influence registration scheme, which means that individuals who undertake activity in the UK on behalf of the Iranian Government face a choice between registering that activity and having the threat of a criminal offence with a five-year prison sentence. We have introduced that in the last 12 months; we have sanctioned the IRGC in its entirety, as well as 550 Iranian individuals and entities. We have put in place a robust package of measures to tackle threats from the Iranian regime. We have already sanctioned the IRGC financier Ali Ansari, freezing over £100 million of his UK property.

We now have powers to proscribe, as discussed earlier. The Independent Reviewer of Terrorism Legislation, Jonathan Hall KC, has recommended that we take further action against state actors, and state proscription, and has recommended legislation for that. My right honourable friend the Prime Minister, when visiting a synagogue last week, mentioned that we want to bring that forward as a matter of urgency as soon as practicable.

Noble Lords will know that the King’s Speech is not too far away. I cannot anticipate today what will be in it, but I hope that noble Lords can understand the direction of travel at the earliest opportunity to take that legislation forward.

This is an issue that the Government take seriously. People of the Jewish community have the right to live their lives free from intimidation, free from threat and free from attack. The job of the Government is to ensure that through protective security and legislation and, where possible, by tracking down perpetrators of action and those who seek to perpetrate action, and we will not rest until antisemitism is eradicated. It is a difficult, challenging task. We have a range of potential operators in the UK and beyond; there is hate legislation in place; there is a range of measures we are bringing forward in the Crime and Policing Bill and there are measures we will be considering at the earliest opportunity when legislation is brought forward. It is important that all of us in this Chamber unite in support for the Jewish community, in condemnation of these attacks and in ensuring that extremism has no place in our society in the 21st century.

Golders Green Ambulance Attack

Debate between Lord Hanson of Flint and Lord Palmer of Childs Hill

Thursday 26th March 2026 Lords Chamber

[Lord Hanson of Flint (Lab)]

The noble Lord will know that I think the attacks he has listed are vile crimes. Some are still under investigation, but they are vile crimes and there is absolutely no place in this United Kingdom for antisemitism. There is a range of other communities which regularly face attack, but I share his concern that the Jewish community is being singled out. In this Government, from the Prime Minister downwards, we will take a stand against antisemitism, we will not tolerate it, and we will take steps both to protect the Jewish community and ultimately to drive out the causes of those attacks in the first place.

[Lord Palmer of Childs Hill (LD)]

My Lords, I must first declare an interest in that Hatzola, which runs the ambulances, came to my home when my wife broke her leg, and it came to my home when I fell down and was unconscious, and took me to hospital. It is a Jewish organisation but it does not help only Jews. I have been in Golders Green, the area we are talking about, when a woman fell down in the middle of the street, and Hatzola came to deal with it. There was a man lying prone on the pavement, of who knows what religion, and Hatzola came to help him. This is a charitable organisation. I ask the Minister this question with great reluctance, because I have always said we must not conflate the things that happen in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza with what happens in the UK, but is there not a similarity between these attacks on the ambulances in Golders Green and the Hamas attacks on the peaceful settlements of kibbutzim in southern Israel? Is there not a playbook here, where Jews in Israel and the UK are being targeted? Can the Minister ask the police authorities whether Hamas is active in the UK?

[Lord Hanson of Flint (Lab)]

First of all, I share the noble Lord’s concern about the attack and about the damage that was done. In response to that damage, the Government have replaced those four ambulances that were burned and will help support that organisation in future to rebuild the types of services that the noble Lord referred to so that we can have a continuum of support in that way. I hope the House will recognise that I cannot comment on the motivation of the attack. Two individuals have been arrested and they are on bail. We do not know what their motivation was, but I say to the noble Lord that antisemitism, whether in Israel or in the United Kingdom, is a vile action. It needs to be attacked and shown up for what it is, and the Government, both at home and abroad, as my noble friend Lady Chapman mentioned earlier, will take action to ensure that we drive it out. We can of course attack the State of Israel and its policies but antisemitism is an entirely different thing, and I share the noble Lord’s concern on that matter.

Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps

Debate between Lord Hanson of Flint and Lord Palmer of Childs Hill

Tuesday 13th January 2026 Lords Chamber

[Lord Hanson of Flint (Lab)]

I can assure the noble Baroness that my right honourable friend the Foreign Secretary has this week spoken directly to the Iranian Government. The Iranian ambassador to the United Kingdom is being summoned to see Foreign Office Ministers today. As we speak, the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs is making a Statement in the House of Commons outlining a range of other measures that the Government intend to take. The noble Baroness can be assured that we are appalled by the actions of the Iranian Government and will continue to make representations accordingly.

[Lord Palmer of Childs Hill (LD)]

My Lords, with the focus on the problems in Iran at the moment, and bearing in mind what the Minister has said about what he can and cannot comment on, does he agree that with the Intelligence and Security Committee’s finding that:

“Iran poses a wide-ranging, persistent and unpredictable threat”,


and MI5’s revelation of more than 20 potentially lethal Iran-backed plots, the continued failure to proscribe the IRGC leaves a dangerous gap in our national security that cannot continue to be avoided?

[Lord Hanson of Flint (Lab)]

The noble Lord is right that both the security services and the Government have taken a very serious view of the threat of the Iranian regime at home and abroad. That is why the Government have undertaken to impose the financial sanctions and travel bans I referred to in my answer to my noble friend Lord Cryer. We keep proscription under review. That does not mean that we do not keep security issues under review at all times as well. We will take whatever action is required to protect Britain and British citizens and to ensure that we deflate the conflation that is happening now in Iran.