Camilla Tominey grills Cabinet Minister on antisemitism: ‘Why can't politicians say where hate is coming from?!’

Camilla Tominey grilled Labour Cabinet Minister Heidi Alexander over a reluctance by the political class to identify the origins of the recent rise in antisemitism.

The Transport Secretary was appearing on GB News as Keir Starmer pledged to clamp down on hate after the stabbing of two Jewish men in Golders Green last week.

“Why is nobody saying where it's currently predominantly coming from?” Camilla asked.

“It's coming from extremists within Muslim communities, and that's backed up by some statistics here,” she declared.

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“65 per cent of young Muslims believe Israel doesn't have a right to exist. Less than a quarter of British Muslims think that Hamas committed rape and murder on October 7.

“I know it's uncomfortable, but why can't politicians say where this hate is actually coming from as opposed to skirting around the outsides of this issue? I don't understand.”

“I don't think anyone is skirting around any issue,” Ms Alexander shot back.

“One of the reasons why the threat level in this country was raised on Thursday was because of the growth of terrorist related activity linked to Islamist ideology.

She suggested this was also “linked to far-right ideology as well”.

“No one's trying to sugarcoat this problem. We will tackle it wherever we find it,” the Transport Secretary added.

Ms Alexander celebrated the work of Shabana Mahmood as a “very senior Muslim figure in this country”.

Referring to the Home Secretary, she relayed the message that it was “incumbent upon people from the Muslim community to condemn antisemitism”.

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“When I've done inter-faith work, there are a lot of good people who want to make a difference,” the Transport Secretary insisted.

Despite this, she warned that “some people who seem to have poison running in their veins”.

“We have to build understanding of one another's cultures, one another's history.

“We need to share the British values of tolerance and respect,” Ms Alexander stressed.

In the wake of the Golders Green attack, the Prime Minister pledged that the Government “will do everything in our power to stamp this hatred out”.

“We will strengthen our security and protect our Jewish community,” he said in an address to the nation.

“I also call on everyone decent in this country to open their eyes to Jewish pain, Jewish suffering, and Jewish fear.

“I call on everyone to come together and fight anti-Semitism, and I call on everyone to fight for the decent, respectful, tolerant Britain that millions of people and I love so that our freedom and our values can still speak loud and true to a community that can no longer take it on faith.”

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