Antisemitism in Schools and Colleges

Al Pinkerton Excerpts

Wednesday 21st October 2026 Commons Chamber

[Lucy Powell]

I thank my hon. Friend for that, and once again put on record my thanks to Sir David Bell and his team for the way in which they conducted themselves, not just for the outcome of their review. My hon. Friend is absolutely right: positive engagement, cultural experiences and cultural exchange are absolutely critical to our fostering an environment of acceptance, tolerance, respect and understanding. It sounds like the exhibition at the Bournemouth gallery is one such event, and we will be supporting with extra funding schools to take part in more of these cultural experiences.

[Dr Al Pinkerton (Surrey Heath) (LD)]

I have no Jewish schools in my constituency of Surrey Heath, nor any formally constituted places of Jewish worship, but I do have a proud and active Jewish community and am also the father of two children. As the father of two teenagers, I am deeply concerned about their exposure to deeply problematic mis and disinformation that exists online, including conspiracy theories. So I wonder whether the Secretary of State can, in pursuance of recommendations 4 and 12b, say a little bit more, because these are complex recommendations. They talk about staff being informed about the

“nature and risks of harmful antisemitic content”,

when we do not really, even as a society, fully understand the nature and scope of that antisemitic content, because it can be explicit, but it also can be insipid and implicit. Recommendation 12b mentions embedding

“high-quality teaching on media literacy…to recognise and confront harmful online content”.

These are difficult, very challenging things for any teacher to do. In supporting those teachers, will the Secretary of State say more about how this set of recommendations dovetails with this Government’s broader interest in tackling mis and disinformation online, because in truth we need a whole-of-society approach to tackle this scourge?

[Lucy Powell]

That is an excellent question and it raises a very good point. The hon. Gentleman talks about being a father. As a mother, I too have had to have these conversations at home and it is important that we do. That was in part why I wanted to be absolutely explicit and clear—as we all need to be—in my opening statement about how antisemitism is revealing itself in modern times. But the hon. Gentleman is absolutely right: this is hard; it is not easy for anybody.

I have great faith in our teaching workforce. We have some of the best teachers in the world in our schools, but we will be working with experts and the teaching profession to design a lot of the resources and the guidance and advice that we need. The hon. Gentleman will be aware that in addition to what I am announcing today we are on the cusp of our big curriculum review, and at the heart of that review will be media and digital literacy and equipping our young people with the ability to discern dis and misinformation and to ask the right questions and to understand where information is coming from and therefore what it might mean.