Anti-Semitism: University Campus Incidents

Lord Polak Excerpts

Thursday 21st January 2021 Grand Committee

[Lord Polak (Con)]

I pay tribute to the noble Baroness, Lady Deech, for securing this debate and to Gerald Ronson, the founder, driving force and inspiration of the Community Security Trust. I welcome my noble friend Lord Wolfson to the House and to the Front Bench. We both attended King David High School in Liverpool, where we learned tolerance and understanding. I am sure that he will be pleased to note that, along with other clubs, our beloved Liverpool Football Club has adopted the IHRA definition of anti-Semitism.

Jewish students up and down the country need our support because, in the words of the late Lord Sacks:

“A society … that tolerates anti-Semitism—that tolerates any hate—has forfeited all moral credibility.”—[Official Report, 20/6/19; col. 868.]


This certainly applies to universities in particular; I support the call of the noble Baroness, Lady Deech, for all institutes of higher education to adopt the IHRA definition. I am certain that Jewish students up and down the country will take some comfort from today’s debate—although I am unsure how a one-minute contribution from the noble Baroness, Lady Tonge, will be sufficient to put right a career of repeating old, medieval tropes.

[The Deputy Chairman of Committees (Baroness Healy of Primrose Hill) (Lab)]

The noble Lord, Lord Woolley of Woodford, has withdrawn, so I call the noble Baroness, Lady Warwick of Undercliffe.