‘Zero tolerance for inaction’ on campus antisemitism, says Starmer

UK universities will be required to track and publish the scale of antisemitism on campuses and what they plan to do about it, with the government warning it will have “zero tolerance for inaction”.

Speaking at a Downing Street summit on antisemitism called in the wake of last week’s terrorist attack in Golders Green, Keir Starmer said his government will be stepping up efforts to protect Jewish university staff and students.  

Highlighting a £7 million investment in antisemitism training for staff in schools, colleges and universities, the prime minister told those gathered for the summit that “today, we’re going further”.

“We already expect universities to set out clear disciplinary consequences for antisemitism and to enforce them,” Starmer said. “And so we will hold them to account on that.

“But today I can announce that we will lift the bar higher when abuses take place. We’re calling on universities to demonstrate action. We will now expect them to publish the scale of the problem on their campuses, as well as the specific steps they have taken to clamp down on it. There will be zero tolerance for inaction.”

Starmer called leaders from the business, civil society, health, culture, higher education and policing sectors to the summit on 5 May to “drive forward progress on tackling antisemitism in all its forms”.

It followed the stabbing of two Jewish men on the streets of north London on 29 April in the latest of a series of antisemitic attacks.

Asked about what consequences universities may face should they fail to tackle antisemitism, the prime minister’s official spokesperson told reporters that details would be revealed “in due course”, according to The Guardian.

Writing for Times Higher Education ahead of the summit, Vivienne Stern, chief executive of Universities UK, said universities should be doing more to combat antisemitism.

She said she had written to vice-chancellors to ask them to “review security arrangements in light of evidence of escalating violence” and was working with the Union of Jewish Students to promote its antisemitism training.

Stern said she would also undertake this training herself and “accept the responsibility that I personally have to be part of a wider societal move to counter extremism”.

“I believe that universities can be part of the solution – especially through our opportunity to educate a large number of young people on effective disagreement and on where the boundaries between legitimate protest and antisemitism lie,” Stern writes.

“Universities are uniquely well placed to play this role, and to address a growing societal evil through taking a zero-tolerance approach to antisemitism on campuses.”

tom.williams@timeshighereducation.com