The Home Secretary has announced £25 million in new security funding following the Golders Green attack, acknowledging that “words are not enough” to address the threat facing Jewish communities.
Funding for Protection
Shabana Mahmood revealed the additional resources will be directed towards boosting police patrols and enhancing protections around synagogues, schools, and community centres. The announcement comes after a suspected terrorist attack in north London left two Jewish men stabbed and hospitalised.
Speaking on Sky News, Ms Mahmood stated: “I said yesterday that an attack on our Jewish community is an attack on us all. I do also recognise, however, that words are not enough, that the community rightly feels under huge pressure, very fearful and angry. People are grieving and people have a sense of deep insecurity.”
Fast-Tracked Decisions
The Home Secretary explained that ministers had already been in discussions about how to respond to a series of attacks on Jewish communities. The new funding will now be brought forward as a result of the Golders Green incident. “I had already been in discussion with partners in policing and representatives from the community about what more we need to do to respond to the attacks that we've already seen, and as it happens, those investigations, those discussions were taking place just as this attack happened. So I have brought forward those decisions on the enhanced funding,” she said.
Ms Mahmood added: “I will do everything in my power to make sure that we are doing everything we can so that our Jewish community can go about their business in the same safety and security as everybody else.”
Details of the Attack
Two Jewish men, aged 76 and 34, were stabbed in a terrorist attack in the Golders Green area on Wednesday. They remain in a stable condition in hospital. Jewish leaders have called for tougher action on antisemitic violence following the double stabbing, which occurred at around 11.15am and has been declared a terrorist attack.
Ms Mahmood also signalled that she would consider banning the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), an Iranian military group, as she faced questions about new laws. She said: “Just to reassure you, the only reason I’m not giving a wider commentary on who this will include is because we would never give any commentary on organisations that we are considering for either our proscription regime… or indeed, this new regime. I expect to be making decisions in the very near future about the groups that we will be designating as state-linked.”
Attacker's Background
This morning, Ms Mahmood revealed that the attacker is a 45-year-old man born in Somalia who came to the UK as a child in the 1990s and is a British national.
Police across the country have stepped up patrols in response to the attack, which saw two Jewish men – 34-year-old Shilome Rand and 76-year-old Moshe Ben Baila, locally named as Moshe Shine – taken to hospital after being stabbed in Golders Green. The stabbings are the latest in a series of attacks on Jewish sites over recent weeks, prompting calls for urgent action and accusations that the Government has not done enough to tackle antisemitism.
