Met set up specialist unit as antisemitic hate crime in London hits two-year high

The number of antisemitic hate crimes recorded in April in London was the highest in two years, data shows, as the Metropolitan police commit to deploying 100 extra officers to protect Jewish communities.

The force says a “community protection team” will be set up, combining neighbourhood policing with counter-terrorism capabilities, as British Jews face “some of the highest levels of hate crime alongside significant terrorist and hostile state threats”.

The Metropolitan police logged 140 offences last month, up from 98 in March and 67 in February. April’s total is the highest monthly figure since the force changed the way it counts hate crime in March 2024.

Of the 140 incidents in London in April, 51 (36%) occurred in Barnet, the north London borough that includes Golders Green, Hendon and Finchley, which have large Jewish populations. Among the offences were attempted arson attacks at Finchley Reform Synagogue on 15 April and at the former premises in Hendon of the charity Jewish Futures three days later. A further attempted arson attack targeted a memorial wall in Golders Green on 28 April.

Golders Green was also the scene of a double stabbing on 29 April that is subject to a terrorism investigation.

In Camden, which neighbours Barnet, 17 antisemitic offences were recorded by the Met in April; 16 were recorded in Hackney, 10 in Haringey and seven in Westminster. Overall, at least one antisemitic hate crime was logged last month in 21 of the 32 London boroughs.

The Met says its new community protection team marks the “beginning of a new, more sustainable and consistent model of protection built around local knowledge, visibility and partnership, rather than relying solely on repeated short-term surges”.

Data from before March 2024, under the previous method of counting, showed a spike in antisemitic hate crimes in London after the Hamas terrorist attack on Israel on 7 October and the subsequent Israel-Gaza war.

Offences surged from 61 in September 2023 to 518 in October, with 411 in November, 228 in December, 198 in January 2024 and 174 in February.

On Monday, a spokesperson for Keir Starmer said the government was “determined to make Jewish people in this country feel safe again”, after an antisemitism summit at Downing Street attended by ministers, police, community groups and representatives from business, media, arts and university sectors.

In a speech at the summit, the prime minister said the Arts Council “must act using its powers to suspend, withdraw and clawback funding” if arts organisations platform antisemitism.