Commission on Antisemitism Report

Baroness Burt of Solihull Excerpts

Thursday 17th July 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)]

The noble Lord is quite right that education sits right at the heart of this. To noble Lords who may not have had time to read the report yet, I commend these examples: Maccabi GB delivering training on contemporary antisemitism across the entirety of English football, which I think is a very clear example; and the agreement between the diocese of Winchester and the local Jewish community to teach primary school teachers how to avoid passing on antisemitism and anti-Jewish tropes in their lessons. These are wonderful examples, as are those quoted by the noble Lord. I am sure that my noble friend the Minister for Education will take those on board and think about how we address this in future. There is also a role for local government here, of course, in promoting this issue, in training and support to schools.

[Baroness Burt of Solihull (LD)]

My Lords, as has been said, we are now suffering historically high levels of antisemitism since 7 October, despite the fact that British Jews have nothing to do with the actions of foreign organisations such as the IDF. As the noble Lord, Lord Pickles, said, one theme of the report is to call for more consistency and capacity in the training of people who train others in tackling antisemitism, particularly in schools—which, of course, is where it all begins. How far are the Government considering adopting these recommendations in the report and, if they are, could we have some details, please?

[Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)]

The report contains a number of very clear recommendations. Of course, all of those will be reviewed, and I hope that that will take place right across government. Certainly, I will make sure that my department looks at all the recommendations. As with any report, it takes a little while to assess the recommendations and how they need to be considered and implemented, but I reassure the noble Baroness that, right from the heart of government—I know the Prime Minister was asked about this yesterday—we consider this an important contribution to discussing how we tackle antisemitism in this country. We will take the recommendations seriously and act on them as appropriate.