Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood has disagreed with comments made last night by the government terror adviser Jonathan Hall KC. Hall told broadcasters that a spate of antisemitic attacks amounted to a “national security emergency”…
He compared the situation to the 2005 attacks:
“the government was prepared to say did say the rules of the game have changed and they really went for the underlying causes. I think that existing laws of course can be used and the police cannot be criticized for the protection that they are trying to give to the Jewish community. But just as they went after the hateful ideologies in 2005 and they changed the law and they were prepared to be quite assertive and aggressive, I do think the government needs to do something along those lines now.”
Hall added that the government should consider a “moratorium” on marches that use “Iran-style language” like “death to the IDF” and “globalise the intifada” and deport antisemitic preachers:
“If people are for example preaching in mosques and we know that there are people preaching in mosques it doesn’t matter frankly whether it’s based on the Quran or not um they should look to remove people to deport people they should make the straightforward argument that if you want to live in this country you cannot be anti-semitic and they should use the many many tools that are available to the government.”
On BBC Breakfast this morning Shabana Mahmood insisted an extra £25 million for security would be enough:
“I think the the phrase national emergency has particular connotations… And it means that for a period you uh change your uh your your democracy uh and disapplying some elements of democratic society. I it is an emergency uh for me as home secretary to respond to because we have seen a spate of attacks and I know we need to do more in order to secure the safety of our Jewish community. It’s why we brought forward the investment of £25 million. It’s why I’ve already been changing the law in relation to protests and it’s why we’ve got this wider review on public order legislation and hate crime as well. And it is my job to make sure all of our legal powers are commensurate to the risks that we are seeing and that we have the powers that we need in order to deal with these issues.”
That line may not hold for long…
Red Wall Labour backbencher Jonathan Brash told GB News that Starmer should resign:
“I’m completely fed up about it, and I think it’s got to the point now where I genuinely think that, as far as the Prime Minister is concerned, it’s not a case of if, it’s when.”