The UK’s security minister has rejected comments made by the government’s independent counter-extremism adviser in which he said Britain was a “permissive environment” for antisemitism.
Tom Tugendhat said threats to any community were taken “extremely seriously”.
It comes after Robin Simcox, the Home Office’s commissioner for countering extremism, said there had been “normalisation” of anti-Israel extremism and antisemitism and the creation of a “permissive environment”.
In an op-ed for the Times newspaper, Simcox, who will give a speech at 1pm on Thursday, blamed this on a “failed policy mix of mass migration and multiculturalism”.
Asked about the comments, Tugendhat told Times Radio: “No, I don’t agree with that. I think that the United Kingdom is a country and an environment in which we take all threats to any communities extremely seriously.
“You just have to look at the response over the last 10 days – the way the prime minister, the home secretary and I and many others have been reaching out to the Jewish community, making sure policing is appropriate … to give reassurance.
“The way in which we’ve been engaging as well with the Muslim community, some of whom are feeling also vulnerable at this time, feeling stigmatised.”
The minister also emphasised the right to freedom of expression as “absolutely fundamental” to democracy. He drew a distinction between “perfectly legitimate” support for Palestine and promotion of Hamas, a proscribed terrorist group in the UK, which he said should result in arrests.
“This country champions freedom of speech and it’s absolutely right that we do because freedom of speech is … the basis in fact of every other liberty,” he said.
“I’m not going to be apologetic about freedom of speech … but I will stand up and say very clearly that proscribed organisations seeking to spread terror or hate in our community should be prevented from doing so and those who champion them should be arrested.”
The minister also disputed the suggestion that multiculturalism had failed, describing the UK as having “phenomenal success in bringing people together”.
“I live in a multicultural home. My wife is French; we speak French and English at home. Many people speak different languages at home, identify with different cultures and are able to mix all of them extremely effectively.”
Antisemitic incidents increased sixfold in the week after the attacks on 7 October compared with the same period last year, according to the Community Security Trust, a charity that provides security advice for British Jews.
Writing in the Times on Thursday, Simcox said the scale of hatred directed at British Jews since the attack was a sign that Britain was “very sick indeed”.
He said the sight of tens of thousands of British citizens who went online or took to the streets not to mourn the victims of the attack on Israel but to voice their support for the “Palestinian resistance” was an example of the inherent anti-Israel extremism that exists in parts of British society.
Chants heard at pro-Palestine protests over the past week, such as “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” and “Long live the Palestinian resistance” had taken on a “precise operational clarity” in the context of the terrorist attack last week, Simcox wrote.
The row follows a clash between Rishi Sunak and the home secretary, Suella Braverman, over whether multiculturalism has failed in the UK.
In a speech in the US last month, Braverman said multiculturalism was a “misguided dogma” that had allowed people to “live parallel lives”.
Days later, Sunak told the BBC: “I think this is something that is incredible about our country, is that it is a fantastic multi-ethnic democracy. We have done an incredible job of integrating people into society and, one of the lovely things about getting the job I have, as the first person from my background to hold this job, that’s a wonderful thing, but it’s also not a big deal in our country.”
