King’s Speech

Lord Cryer Excerpts

Monday 18th May 2026 Lords Chamber

[Lord Cryer (Lab)]

My Lords, I will speak yet again, as many others have, about antisemitism. I would love to be able to stand here today and say that the tide was being turned against antisemitism and we would not have too many more debates like this, but I am afraid I cannot say that because the tide is still running in the wrong direction. I welcome the increased powers to stop protests that threaten public order, which the Government had already taken before the gracious Speech, but I agree with the noble Baroness, Lady Foster, that the glorification of terrorism should be a criminal offence. I had the impression that the Government were going to put that on the statute book, but I may be mistaken about that. All you have to do is look at the marches carrying and chanting repellent slogans to see how terrorism is being glorified on our streets.

There are just two facts to bear in mind. One is that on 7 October 2023, when people were being murdered, raped and tortured in southern Israel, the Palestine Solidarity Campaign applied for a licence to have a protest on the streets of London. Two days later, the Stop the War Coalition—I think it uses the word “coalition” as a matter of irony—held a protest outside the Israeli embassy. Why would you do that unless you were inciting racial hatred? I think that is exactly what they were doing. By the way, the last time I raised the activities of Stop the War, I started getting threatening emails and messages from it, which indicates to me that I have probably hit the nail on the head about its activities.

The rise in antisemitism is possibly—no, not possibly, definitely—the most frightening thing that I have ever witnessed, and I am getting on a bit these days. There are elements in our society that, without any shadow of a doubt, have one aim, and that is to drive British Jews into the sea. That is what they are about. Some of those elements receive support from Tehran. Directly or indirectly, they get funding and resources from that poisonous, evil regime in Tehran that slaughters its own people. I am very pleased to see, though not before time, that the Government plan to proscribe the IRGC. We should have done that before, as should have the previous Government and probably the Government before that.

I welcome the fact that we have criminalised activities that constitute undeclared links to the regime in Tehran. We should also think about criminalising people who have undeclared links to demonstrably Iranian proxies who are operating in this country. That includes criminal gangs, by the way. We are talking not just about religious organisations or political organisations but about criminal gangs, and until we take strong action to criminalise those gangs and organisations that are receiving direct or indirect funding from Tehran, we will not turn the tide on antisemitism.