Antisemitism on University Campuses

Lord Leigh of Hurley Excerpts

Wednesday 7th May 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Leigh of Hurley (Con)]

My Lords, I thank the noble Lord, Lord Cryer, for instigating this debate and, in particular, congratulate him on that excellent opening speech. I pay tribute to all he has done in this area.

I refer your Lordships to various Jewish community organisations where I serve as a volunteer, which have contributed to my thoughts, in particular the Council of Christians and Jews.

Today, the StandWithUs report was issued, which confirms the terrible state we have come to, where high levels of antisemitic abuse seem now to be normal on campus. Antisemitism on campus is not new. It was there when I was a student in the late 1970s and early 1980s, but it has now grown to such a worrying level that Jewish students are actually frightened to go to a British university.

It is not just those who are perpetrating attacks. It is the level of ignorance and hate on campus which is so depressing. If only 33% of students describe the Hamas attack as terrorism, we know we are in trouble. The implication is that 67% do not see Hamas as terrorists. How is it that so many students are so misinformed such that, as the noble Lord, Lord Cryer, mentioned, CST antisemitic incident reports rose 413% from one year to another?

I appreciate that, with only some 250,000 Jewish people in a country of some 70 million, many, if not most, will never have met a Jewish person or heard their story. The roots of the problem, in my opinion, may well be found in schools, which most university students will have recently left. We have seen evidence of teachers in WhatsApp groups referring to ZioNazis, and National Education Union officials undertaking activities such as clearing Israeli-made food from supermarkets, filming themselves doing it and circulating those films. The NEU is preoccupied with anti-Israel resolutions. It is in schools where the prejudice can start and universities where it explodes. The Government have unparalleled relationships with the teaching unions. Are they talking to them about this?

We have seen tough action in the States. No one, including me, likes all of Trump’s actions, but he has showed a decisive determination to deal with antisemitism on campus. Over here, the Union of Jewish Students—UJS—points out that campuses have become an increasingly hostile and exclusionary environment for Jewish students. I visited Cambridge University last year to see the camp and tents outside King’s College where the cry for the elimination of the Jewish people in Israel was made repeatedly. The UJS tells us that repulsive Holocaust inversion takes place, where the roles of victims and perpetrators are reversed.

The Government know all this, but do they act? In September 2024, Keir Starmer gave a speech to the Holocaust Educational Trust—I was there—and acknowledged antisemitism on campus and promised to deal with it. In the very same month, the Minister made a seminal speech on education to the Universities UK conference in Reading. She covered nearly every aspect of education, including freedom of speech, but there was no mention of or reference to antisemitism on campus. Can we be assured that the Minister has read Sir Keir’s speech, which was delivered to a largely Jewish audience, and that there will be joined-up government action?

Universities all need to be reminded of their duty to adopt the IHRA definition and police it. They need to understand that undue hatred of Israel is antisemitic. We need to know that the OfS produces guidance which ensures that universities intervene so that they carry out their duty of care.

I know the Minister has great experience in the education sector and has done for many years. Will she commit personally to engage in this issue by talking to the universities in a clear and public way, which is disclosed to us all so that we can see what has been demanded? If they do not comply, appropriate penalties and actions have to be imposed, as Sir Keir Starmer promised he would do.