By Sam Tabahriti, Sam Tobin and Muvija M
LONDON, April 30 (Reuters) – Britain raised its national terrorism threat level to “severe” from “substantial” on Thursday, a day after an antisemitic stabbing attack in north London, as Prime Minister Keir Starmer said Jewish people were living in fear and vowed stronger action to protect them.
The increase to the second-highest threat level out of five means a terrorist attack within the next six months is highly likely, following Wednesday’s stabbing of two Jewish men in the Golders Green area, the government said. It was decided independently by the Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre.
Britain last faced such a threat level in November 2021, after the Liverpool Women’s Hospital bombing and the killing of lawmaker David Amess, before it was lowered to “substantial” in early 2022.
Interior Minister Shabana Mahmood said the assessment reflected the latest intelligence and a longer-term rise in extremist threats, and was not made solely in response to the Golders Green attack.
Officials said the classification came against a spate of recent attacks in London and mounting security concerns linked to foreign states which they said had helped fuel violence, including against the Jewish community.
The head of counter-terrorism policing, Laurence Taylor, said Britain had been experiencing a growing terrorist threat for some time, with risks coming from multiple directions.
“We are seeing an elevated threat to Jewish and Israeli individuals and institutions in the UK,” he said in a statement, adding that police were also working “against an unpredictable global situation that has consequences closer to home, including physical threats by state-linked actors.”
‘PEOPLE ARE SCARED’
Starmer, who has faced severe criticism from some in the Jewish community for the government’s response, promised more police in Jewish areas, a crackdown on those spreading antisemitism, and new legislation to deal with state-sponsored threats from the likes of Iran.
“People are scared, scared to show who they are in their community, scared to go to synagogue and practise their religion, scared to go to university as a Jew, to send their children to school as a Jew, to tell their colleagues that they are Jewish,” Starmer said in a televised statement.
He had earlier been jeered and heckled by a small crowd waving banners reading “Keir Starmer Jew Harmer” when he visited Golders Green, where the latest attack took place.
The suspect in the attack, a 45-year-old British national who was born in Somalia, had a history of serious violence and mental health issues, police said.
They confirmed he had previously been referred to the counter-radicalisation scheme Prevent in 2020, while local media reported he had served time in prison for an incident in 2008 when he stabbed an officer and a police dog.
STRONGER POWERS NEEDED, STARMER SAYS
Amid widespread calls for more protection for Britain’s small community of about 290,000 Jews, Starmer said the government would do “everything in our power to stamp this hatred out.”
This included stronger powers to shut down charities promoting extremism and a clampdown on “hate preachers,” he said.
The government also said it would fast-track legislation allowing the prosecution of people acting as proxies of a state-sponsored group, so they can be dealt with in the same way as spies for foreign intelligence services.
“We need stronger powers to tackle the malign threat posed by states like Iran, because we know for a fact that they want to harm British Jews,” Starmer said.
A pro-Iranian government group has claimed responsibility for some recent attacks while last month, two men were charged under Britain’s existing National Security Act with being tasked by Iran to carry out hostile surveillance.
Tehran has rejected such accusations.
PROTESTS CAUSE ANGER AMONG JEWISH COMMUNITY
Pro-Palestinian marches, which have become commonplace since the October 2023 attack by Hamas on Israel that triggered the Gaza war, have also fuelled anger within the Jewish community. Critics say the demonstrations have generated hostility and become a focus for antisemitism.
“If you stand alongside people who say ‘Globalise the Intifada’ you are calling for terrorism against Jews, and people who use that phrase should be prosecuted,” Starmer said.
“It is racism, extreme racism, and it has left a minority community in this country, scared, intimidated, wondering if they belong.”
The recent incidents in London are part of a rising number of antisemitic attacks.
Last October, two people were killed after an attack at a synagogue in the northern English city of Manchester. A week later, two men went on trial over a plot to kill hundreds in an Islamic State-inspired gun rampage against the Jewish community.
They were found guilty in December, just over a week after a mass shooting at a Jewish Hanukkah celebration on Australia’s Bondi Beach.
Britain’s independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, Jonathan Hall, told the BBC the British attacks had become “the biggest national security emergency” since 2017, when there was a string of high-profile attacks.
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(Reporting by Sam Tabahriti and Muvija M, writing by Sam Tobin, Michael Holden and Sam Tabahriti; Editing by Aidan Lewis, Andrew Heavens, Bernadette Baum, Rod Nickel)
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