Campus Antisemitism in Britain: Community Security Trust Report

Lord Leigh of Hurley Excerpts

Wednesday 12th March 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Smith of Malvern (Lab)]

The right reverend Prelate makes the important point, as did the noble Baroness, Lady Deech, that there are some universities which are taking this challenge extremely seriously and are making progress. It is important that we share that best practice as widely as possible. On the role of chaplaincies, one of the things that this Government have already done is to provide £500,000 to the University Jewish Chaplaincy, to help to support student welfare on university campuses, as part of the £7 million in funding that we have confirmed to address anti-Semitism in schools, colleges and universities.

[Lord Leigh of Hurley (Con)]

One of the areas led on by the CST was the encampments at the universities, which provide an intimidating and, frankly, terrifying atmosphere for Jewish students. I have walked past them myself and I have seen them. They have been joined by people from outside the university who are masked, shouting slogans supporting terror. What steps will the Minister take to encourage vice-chancellors to move these encampments away from the central parts of the universities—free speech is fine, but not right in the centre of a university—and pursue those who are clearly guilty of anti-Semitism and anti-Semitic rhetoric?

[Baroness Smith of Malvern (Lab)]

The noble Lord is right that encampments have been enormously intimidating and that they have attracted external activists on to campuses, often in a very intimidating way. Universities have already been working hard to improve on the situation from 2023-24, when there were a number of pro-Palestine encampments—at one point, there were around 40 active encampments. Some universities have taken legal action in order to secure possession orders in legal cases. Those cases were helpful for other universities contemplating or in the middle of possession proceedings against similar student encampments. So far, in this academic year, 2024-25, protesters have not been able to establish any kind of encampment lasting more than a few hours. Universities appear to be learning a lot from last year’s experience, both in being able to de-escalate incidents where possible and, where necessary, taking formal action to prevent disruption to core activities, including teaching.