Prime Minister Keir Starmer has declared that the fight against antisemitism is a battle over the kind of country Britain aspires to be, following a terrorist stabbing in Golders Green. Speaking at a Downing Street event convened to address the attack, Mr Starmer vowed to stand with the Jewish community and emphasised that combating antisemitism is an issue for “everyone in this country”.
PM’s Response to Golders Green Attack
The Prime Minister convened a meeting of criminal justice agencies shortly after the Home Secretary unveiled a £25 million security package to boost police patrols and protections around synagogues, schools, and community centres. Mr Starmer asserted: “An attack on our Jewish community is an attack on all of us, and we have to approach it in that way. We are fast tracking legislation to deal with malign state actors and, of course, we must absolutely deal with the root causes of both antisemitism and extremism.”
Call for Swift Justice
Mr Starmer stressed the importance of confidence in the criminal justice system: “I do think there's a wider duty on all of us in terms of the confidence in the criminal justice system to be able to deal with appalling attacks like this, to show that it can act in a swift, agile and visible way.” He added: “It is often said that we stand with our Jewish community, but we do stand with our Jewish community, of course we do, but it's our fight as well. It's the fight of everyone in this country, because it's about what sort of a country that we want to live in.”
Victims and Community Reaction
Two Jewish men, aged 76 and 34, were stabbed in the attack on Wednesday at around 11:15 am. They remain in hospital in a stable condition. Jewish leaders have called for tougher action on antisemitic violence following the incident, which has been declared a terrorist attack. Mr Starmer noted: “What we saw last night was people being targeted because they are Jewish, I’m absolutely clear about that. There’s no getting away from the fact that this was not a one-off. This has been a series of attacks on our community, particularly in recent weeks, and there is a very deep sense of anxiety, of concern about security, about safety, about identity frankly.”
The Prime Minister concluded by urging a collective effort: “We've got to make this a bigger fight, it is a fight for what we believe is the kind of country that we ought to and want to live in.”
