Antisemitic Attacks

Matt Vickers Excerpts

Monday 20th April 2026 Commons Chamber

[Matt Vickers (Stockton West) (Con)]

I thank the Minister for advance sight of his statement. The attacks on our Jewish community have become a national emergency. In recent weeks, we have seen multiple attacks against cultural sites and synagogues. The Jewish community has been targeted again and again. As a result, many Jewish people are, tragically, considering leaving the UK.

When the shadow Home Secretary visited the community in Golders Green just after the attack on the Hatzola ambulances, he was told that they feel abandoned by the Government. That morning, he spoke to a young mother who said she was afraid to send her children to school. Matt Jukes, the Met police deputy commissioner, said this morning:

“We’ve…seen hate crime in our communities before…but now what we’ve got is the prospect of a foreign state actually using that as a mechanism to sow discord…and to create anxiety in our communities”.

Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamia, an Islamist militant group with links to Iran—indeed, many would say it is a proxy for Iran—has claimed responsibility for five incidents targeting Jewish sites in London, including the firebombing of the Hatzola ambulances in Golders Green and the attempted drone attack on the Israeli embassy. Vicki Evans, the senior national co-ordinator for Counter Terrorism Policing, told reporters on Sunday:

“As the conflict in the middle east continues to evolve, Counter Terrorism Policing and our partners remain alive to the threat of Iranian hostile activity in the UK.”

How much more Iranian action on our UK soil is needed before the Government act to proscribe the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps? In opposition, Labour Members, including the then shadow Home Secretary—now the Foreign Secretary—said they would do this, but almost two years after winning power, they have done nothing. Many other countries have acted by proscribing the IRGC, including the USA, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, and earlier this year even the European Union did so, so why have this Government not delivered on their election promise to proscribe the IRGC? If emergency legislation is needed, the Minister will have our support to get it rapidly through Parliament. Will he accept our offer now from the Dispatch Box?

If Iran is behind these recent attacks, large numbers of Iranian diplomats and those suspected of being Iranian spies in the UK must be immediately expelled, as happened to Russian diplomats and spies after the Salisbury attack. That would send a powerful message and degrade Iran’s ability to act on UK soil.

Besides foreign-directed attacks, there has been a sickening tidal wave of domestic antisemitism. As the Leader of the Opposition has said:

“As a black woman in this country, I have never seen the level of racism, discrimination, intimidation and attacks that have been directed at the Jewish community.”

She has said that

“if people were firebombing black churches, the way that synagogues have been attacked, people killed…ambulance services being firebombed…there’d be a national emergency.”

This should be considered a national emergency.

Of course, antisemitism often goes hand in hand with Islamist extremism, a threat we know all too well. Some 75% of MI5’s terrorism caseload relates to Islamist extremism and 94% of terrorist murders in the last 25 years have been perpetrated by Islamist extremists, yet only 10% of the Prevent caseload is Islamist. When we discussed the Hatzola attacks a few weeks ago, the Security Minister said the Government are looking at what they can do about what he rightly admitted was the “mismatch” in Prevent caseloads. Can he update the House on the progress he has made since saying that?

Will the Government commit to using counter-terrorist surveillance techniques to disrupt antisemitic attacks before they occur? Will they also commit to deporting any foreign national who expresses extremist views, sympathy for violence, terrorism, antisemitism or any other such religious hatred? In October, the Home Secretary said that she was reviewing the use of the power under section 3 of the Immigration Act 1971 and promised to update the House, but we have heard nothing since. Will the Minister please update the House today? Antisemitism is a stain on our society. Warm words are no longer enough. Real action is needed.

[Dan Jarvis]

I hope that the shadow Minister will accept that the Government’s response is not about warm words, but about decisive, targeted and effective activity, and that is what we have seen over the past few days.

Let me agree with the hon. Gentleman in recognising the fear and distress that exists within our Jewish communities. It is abhorrent that members of our Jewish community are considering their long-term future in the United Kingdom. Collectively, I am sure we want to assure them that we will do everything we possibly can to make sure that the United Kingdom is a safe place for them and their families, but I recognise the fear and distress they are feeling at the moment. That is why we are making sure that our response is proportionate and urgent in the way that I set out earlier in my remarks.

The shadow Minister, entirely reasonably, raised the spectre of the threat we face from Iran. I have made these points previously, but for the purpose of clarification let me tell him and the House precisely what we are doing to combat the specific threat from Iran. The Government specified Iran under the enhanced tier of the foreign influence registration scheme, which is a useful operational tool that will bolster our oversight of Iran’s influence and activities here in the UK. We have sanctioned more than 550 Iranian individuals and entities, including the IRGC in its entirety. He mentioned proscription. He will know that the Government have committed to take forward the recommendations by Jonathan Hall KC, including the creation of a new proscription-like power to help tackle malign activity by state and non-state linked actors. We have also engaged in extensive activity to go after the criminal networks and enablers that the Iranian intelligence services use to carry out their work, as well as to target those who assist the IRGC and others to launder their money here in the United Kingdom.

The role of the police force right around the country is very important to that work, which is why we have rolled out new training to all frontline police officers to increase their understanding of state threats. We are strengthening our immigration system against Iranian infiltration, including those who promote Iranian interference in the UK. We are also doing this in concert with our allies. We are engaging internationally on transnational Iranian threats, including joining 13 other countries in condemning Iranian intelligence activities, both in the United Kingdom and globally.

The hon. Gentleman mentioned the work we are doing through Prevent. He will have seen the Home Secretary confirm the appointment of a new independent Prevent commissioner, Tim Jacques, to fulfil the role that has been done expertly by Lord Anderson. This is an important role and we want to work very closely with him to ensure the Prevent programme is fit for purpose. The hon. Gentleman will have seen the detail from phase 1 of the Southport inquiry and that the Government immediately commissioned phase 2, which will be conducted by Sir Adrian Fulford; we have made a commitment to respond in full by the summer.

The hon. Gentleman also made an entirely reasonable and important point about extremism. As I said in my previous remarks, the Government are doing a lot of work led by the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government. There is also a lot of work co-ordinated across Government to target the threats we face from extremists. That work was set out recently with the publication of the “Protecting What Matters” document, which shows how the Government are delivering a fundamental reset in how we counter extremism, ensuring we have the tools, capabilities and partnership to match the scale and nature of the threat we face. I hope he and the House understand the seriousness with which we take this issue. These should not be matters of cross-party disagreement. We should work together to make sure that our Jewish communities feel safe. That will be our approach.