Hatzola Ambulance Attack

Paul Waugh Excerpts

Monday 23rd March 2026 Commons Chamber

[Dan Jarvis]

The right hon. Gentleman makes a very sage point. I make this point in more general terms, because clearly I am not going to get into the specifics of what happened this morning, but he is right to draw a distinction between those who plan the attacks and those who conduct them. I am beyond proud of the work of our intelligence services, who recruit from lots of different backgrounds in our country. They do extraordinary work. By necessity, they do their work in the shadows, but I know that I speak for the whole House when I say that we owe them a huge debt of gratitude.

[Paul Waugh (Rochdale) (Lab/Co-op)]

May I express my solidarity and the solidarity of all Rochdalians with Britain’s Jewish community in the wake of this horrific attack on the ambulance station in Golders Green? Whenever such an antisemitic outrage has occurred, my Muslim constituents stress to me repeatedly that it is not done in their name. They want to make that absolutely clear. In fact, antisemitism has now become normalised, not just offline in the playground, but online everywhere, as we saw in Louis Theroux’s documentary “Inside the Manosphere” last week. Does the Minister agree that Ofcom needs to take much tougher action against antisemitism online, perhaps by having a specific strategy to target men and boys who are being deliberately targeted by the antisemites in our community?

[Dan Jarvis]

My hon. Friend makes an important point. I can give him an assurance that, through the defending democracy taskforce, we work closely across Government and with law enforcement, and we look closely at the work of Ofcom. He will know that the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology is the lead Department, and it sits as a key member of the taskforce. We will want to assure ourselves that all the powers are being used appropriately, and if not, we will want to ask why not.