'Britain ON EDGE' - Starmer vows ACTION on extremism as UK threat level raised to SEVERE

Yesterday, Britain's Jewish community

suffered yet another vile terrorist

attack.

Two men stabbed in broad daylight

on the streets of Golders Green

because they were Jews.

I've just come back from Golders Green

where I expressed my sadness and

solidarity with that community, but also

my determination to act

because the truth is this attack is not

a one-off.

There have been a series of attacks

including an arson attack in Henden, an

attack on the Jewish ambulance service

Hatzilla,

the firebombing of Kenton United

Synagogue which I visited last week. And

on top of all this, Heaton Park in

Manchester last October

where two Jewish men were killed in a

vile Islamist attack on their synagogue.

And so people are scared.

Scared to show who they are in their

community.

Scared to go to synagogue and practice

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,

even to use our NHS.

Nobody should live like that in Britain,

but Jews do.

And so yesterday

this anxiety

that is always there

went to another place to terror. Frankly

that is the right word.

I want to thank the Jewish security

services who wrestle with this every day

and who alongside the police prevented a

much greater tragedy yesterday.

I met some of the first responders today

and on behalf of the country.

I thank them for their bravery.

We will strengthen the visible police

presence in our Jewish communities. We

will increase our investment in those

Jewish security services. We will

introduce much stronger powers to shut

down charities that promote anti-semitic

extremism.

We will prevent hate preachers from h

entering our country. Bar them from our

campuses, our streets, our communities.

Work with our justice system to speed up

sentencing on anti-semitic attacks so

there is a stronger deterrence factor

as we do with riots.

And 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. Which is why

we will fasttrack the necessary

legislation.

And yet the truth is while we can and we

will bring the full power of the state

to bear on this,

this is about society

every bit as much as it is about

security.

At moments like this,

we often say

this is not Britain.

that these attacks are an affront to

British values, to British tolerance,

British decency,

but they keep happening,

don't they?

And so today, instead,

I will simply say

that our values

are not a gift handed down generation to

generation.

They are something we earn each day

through action.

They come from us.

Anti-semitism

is an old old hatred.

History shows that the roots are deep

and if you turn away it grows back.

Yet far too many people in this country

diminish it.

They either don't see it or they don't

want to see it.

Take the marches that happen regularly

across Britain.

Of course, we protect freedom of speech

and peaceful protest in this country.

But if you are marching with people

wearing pictures of paragliders without

calling it out, you are venerating the

murder of Jews.

If you stand alongside people who say

globalize the interifard,

you are calling for terrorism against

Jews. And people who use that phrase

should be prosecuted.

It is racism. extreme racism

and it has left a minority community in

this country

scared,

intimidated,

wondering

if they belong.

So I say again, this government will do

everything in our power to stamp this

hatred out. We will strengthen our

security and protect our Jewish

community.

But 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 I and millions of people 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.

Thank you.

I will now take a couple of questions. I

think first from Paul,

Prime Minister, you've just been heckled

on a visit to Golders Green. one of the

victims of this attack says he feels let

down and the government isn't doing its

job to make Jewish people feel safe. Can

you say hand on heart that you have done

everything you can and do you owe the

Jewish community in the UK an apology?

Well, can I start by saying I absolutely

understand the high levels of anxiety

and concern that there are reflected uh

in the various reactions uh over the

last day or two. I completely understand

that anxiety has been there for a very

long time and the appalling terrorist

attack yesterday made it worse. In terms

of what we've done, uh, we have, uh,

called an emergency COBRA yesterday to

make sure that we're coordinating the

response and putting the necessary

security in place. I pulled together the

various criminal justice agencies this

morning to make sure that together we

can show that justice will be swift,

effective, and visible to give

confidence to people.

We had already put in enhanced funding

for security and we'll put more funding

in now. Uh we're looking at what further

measures we can take on protest

particularly in relation to chance to

banners and the repeated nature of

protests. Uh we're of course looking at

what more needs to be done in health and

education and uh we will fast track uh

powers to deal with malign state um

actors. So there is a lot uh that is

being done. Of course, we need to do um

everything we can, but we do also need

uh to uh ensure that this is a um this

is something the whole country is

prepared to call out uh to see and to

fight against. Thank you. I'll take PA.

>> Uh Prime Minister, the police have said

that the suspect in this case had

previously been referred to Prevent.

This looks like another failure for that

program. Can we trust that prevent can

keep us safe from extremism?

>> The uh investigation is obviously still

ongoing and so we haven't got all the

facts yet, but u prevent was um reviewed

um and we made changes after the

Southport attack. Um we need to be open

to learning any further lessons that may

come out of uh this investigation, but

we're at a very early stage at this

point.

Thank you very much.