The words from the Prime Minister are clear: “We must defeat this hate.” The promise is firm: “I will do everything in my power.” But for a Jewish community reeling from a massacre on its holiest day, the sound of political resolve is being drowned out by the memories of a car slamming into a crowd and the phantom blast of a bomb scare.
This is the sad reality in Britain today. The attack in Manchester didn’t just spring up from nowhere. While politicians delivered speeches, the number of hate crimes against Jewish people quietly doubled. Let that sink in. Doubled. The statistics are no longer stark numbers on a Home Office report, they are now the terrified congregants at Heaton Park synagogue, the families now planning funerals instead of breaking their Yom Kippur fast.
We can applaud the police for their seven-minute response, but that is a victory in a battle we should never have had to fight. The real failure happened in the months and years before, in the online forums where conspiracy festered, in the streets where slurs were muttered without consequence, and in a political discourse that too often treated antisemitism as a niche issue rather than a national emergency.
So, what does “doing everything in my power” actually look like? It cannot be business as usual. It must be a fundamental shift from managing this crisis to ending it.
First, the government must stop making Jewish communities beg for security. The time for temporary grants for synagogue security cameras is over. We need a permanent, properly funded commitment to protect Jewish life in Britain—guards, barriers, and a direct line to counter-terror resources. The community should not have to pass a collection plate to pay for its own survival.
Second, we must starve the beast of online hate. This means moving beyond gentle requests to social media companies and towards imposing stiff penalties for platforms that allow violent, antisemitic rhetoric to be curated and amplified on their watch. A national task force, led in lockstep with Jewish leaders, must be given the teeth to tear this content down.
Finally, and most importantly, the Prime Minister must lead a cultural reckoning. This means using his voice, consistently and without fear, to call out antisemitism from all corners—from the far-right to the hard-left. It means ensuring that no political party, including his own, is in partnership with anyone who traffics in this poison. It means embedding education about antisemitism into the heart of our national curriculum, so the next generation understands this ancient hatred for what it is.
The memory of those lost in Manchester demands more than our grief. It demands our courage. The test for Keir Starmer is no longer one of intention, but of action. The British Jewish community has been promised safety. Now, the entire nation waits to see that promise turned into iron-clad reality.
