King’s Speech

Lord Leigh of Hurley Excerpts

Thursday 21st May 2026 Lords Chamber

[Lord Leigh of Hurley (Con)]

My Lords, I was interested to note that in the first paragraph of the gracious Speech the King mentioned the Middle East conflict, and in the second paragraph he made the statement:

“My Government will take urgent action to tackle antisemitism”.


Clearly, the two are not unrelated. Like the noble Lord, Lord Pannick, I went to the Nova festival exhibition in east London on Monday with some other Members of this House, and it brought back the utter revulsion and shock of the events of October 7. I very much hope that the Minister, along with many if not most of the Members of this House, will also make a point of going to the Nova exhibition. The barbarity of October 7 was beyond description. Shortly afterwards, the Government seemed to be sympathetic to the horrific threat faced by Israel of repeat attacks, but, unfortunately, since then they have significantly diluted their conviction to ensure that this never happens again.

I very much welcome His Majesty’s Government’s previous statement that there has not been any genocide in Gaza. To suggest so is an insult to the true victims of genocides around the world and to ignore the extraordinary steps taken by the IDF to try to protect civilian life wherever possible, despite facing an enemy who uses its own compatriots as shields and pawns in hospitals and schools. Fair criticism of Israel is fine—I have made that, in particular of Mr Ben-Gvir and his like. Can the Minister today confirm the Government’s position that there was no genocide in Gaza?

We have seen unparalleled levels of antisemitism and hate in the UK. As recently as last Saturday, the Palestinian demonstration had to be redirected by the police to avoid it going past my synagogue. As I said on Times Radio later in the day, members of my congregation felt unable to attend because of the danger they felt simply being on the streets of London, going to and leaving the service. I was there; I saw it.

The Government have offered welcome money and warm words to the Jewish community, but they miss the very simple point that their constant demonisation of Israel opens the door to those who wish to indiscriminately attack both Israel and the Jewish community around the world. We have heard for ourselves in the marches the chant “Death to the IDF” and “From the river to the sea”. I am sure noble Lords realise what “from the river to the sea” means. It means that every Jewish person should be thrown out from the State of Israel.

I ask the Minister, who I know is unhappy with the level of antisemitism he sees in the UK, to urgently address the following issues which relate to the scale of institutional focus against Israel, which is without parallel. For example, agenda item 7 of the Human Rights Council exists solely to target Israel. The UK has changed its position on agenda item 7, which is completely unacceptable. For years, under previous Administrations and this one, the UK opposed it along with the E3 partners and now it has shamefully moved to abstention.

Likewise, we see that UNRWA is in a state of institutional dysfunction. It applies an inherited definition of refugee status exclusively to the Palestinians. Unlike any other refugee in any part of the world, it perpetuates the Palestinian refugee question rather than trying to resolve it. This Government are guilty of compliance. There has been proven Hamas infiltration of UNRWA, so why have HMG continued funding it? Why have this Government not made more protests over the appointment of Francesca Albanese as a special rapporteur, given her appalling statements? Some European allies have, so why cannot we?

I am pleased that the King’s Speech announced the tackling state threats Bill, which will, I hope, allow the Islamic—not the Iranian—Revolutionary Guards to be proscribed. I think I probably detect the Minister’s hand in making this happen, for which we are grateful. The threat to this country from Islamic radicalism is not just cyber attacks; it is not just violence on our streets, killing Jews randomly; it is also the institutionalised singling out of the world’s only Jewish state. We see more attacks on Israel in the House of Commons than support for the National Health Service.

These and other inherently discriminatory measures have created such a negative perception of Israel that some very misguided people believe they have an open door and support to take it out on Jewish people in this country. In Heaton Park in Manchester on Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish calendar, the attacker shouted, “This is what you get for killing children”, pledged allegiance to the Islamic State and then killed two British Jews.

We need to understand the direct connection between demonising Israel unjustly and death threats to British Jews. This Government should have the backbone to be much more forthright in their support for Israel’s fight for the right to exist and take steps to calm the febrile, poisonous atmosphere which has arisen against Israel and our own Jewish community.