Politics Home | Train Teachers To Identify Antisemitism In Classrooms, Says Independent Advisor

The government’s antisemitism Lord John Mann told PoliticsHome all school teachers should have “basic” antisemitism training. (Alamy)

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Lord John Mann, a former Labour MP who has advised ministers on antisemitism since 2019, said he was not “satisfied” with how successive governments have responded to rising levels of antisemitism in the UK, saying “everyone needs to up their game”.

Mann spoke to PoliticsHome after two Jewish people were stabbed in a terrorist attack in Golders Green, north London, on Wednesday. The Met Police announced on Friday morning that Essa Suleima, 45, had been charged in connection with the attack.

There have also been arson attacks in the wider borough of Barnet, home to the UK’s largest Jewish community, in recent months, including the firebombing of ambulances run by a Jewish charity and several synagogues, and a lethal attack on a synagogue in Manchester last year. 

Following the terrorist attack on Wednesday, the government has announced an additional £25m for community policing to protect Jewish communities and pledged to fast-track legislation banning state-linked terror groups.

In a press conference on Thursday, Prime Minister Keir Starmer said ministers were looking at “further measures we can take on protests”, amid calls for tougher action against antisemitism at pro-Palestine marches. Starmer said the phrase “globalise the intifada” was an example of “extreme racism” which should result in police prosecution.

Speaking to PoliticsHome, Mann said there should be a greater police presence in Barnet permanently, as well as more government funding for security measures to protect Jews across the country, like CCTV and alarm systems in shops.

But he stressed that tackling antisemitism must go further than greater security, calling for every secondary school teacher nationwide to be “taught the basics” of identifying it: “about how to recognise antisemitism, and how to deal with it in the classroom”.

“Very basic level training, nothing particularly expensive or fancy, a basic level for every secondary school teacher, starting with the new teachers. I think that is doable, and that it needs to happen. And I’m impatient on that happening,” the peer said.

He continued: “If a Jewish child at school, or a Jewish staff member, doesn’t have people at work who understand how to recognise antisemitism, they’re clearly not going to be able to deal with it properly… and the impact on children is far more important than anything…

“I put it to the last government, I put it to this government. It hasn’t happened yet.”

Mann said the recent creation of a cross-departmental group in government focusing on antisemitism was a “really significant” development, but warned that it “would take some time for that to have a real impact”. He added that he expects his report on antisemitism in the health service to be published by Health Secretary Wes Streeting in the coming weeks.

Speaking during a visit to Golders Green on Thursday, the Prime Minister said the government was looking at “what more needs to be done in health and education” to tackle antisemitism. “So there is a lot that is being done. Of course, we need to do everything we can,” he said.

However, Mann argued that the UK does not yet have a “comprehensive approach” to dealing with antisemitism, after charity Community Support Trust said in February that 2025 saw the second-highest annual number of anti-Jewish hate incidents on record.

“We don’t have a comprehensive approach, in my opinion, to extremism. What it is, how it manifests,” he said.

“The growth of Islamist extremism has been pronounced and is very dangerous, and we’re not on top of that. We have left-wing extremism and right-wing extremism to contend with… both have grown. Older problems and newer problems all converged together.”

Last month, the cross-party Home Affairs Committee concluded that Prevent, the government’s anti-terrorism programme, is “outdated and inadequately prepared”. 

Committee chair Conservative MP Karen Bradley said Prevent “has the clear and explicit function of stopping people becoming radicalised into terrorism, but more and more it is having to support those with no ideological motivation, who may have complex needs and operate in digital spaces that are poorly understood”.

“There needs to be a comprehensive structure in place at a local level, but implemented nationwide, that triages referrals to where they can receive the right support.”

Mann believes that “very big numbers” of Jews will start to leave the UK “very quickly” if things do not change, telling PoliticsHome that “the freedom to be Jewish in this country has been significantly impaired”. 

“That’s unacceptable, because people aren’t doing that willingly,” said Lord Mann.

“They’re doing it under duress.”

The independent adviser compared what he believes could happen in the UK in the coming months to what happened in France following rising levels of antisemitism in the 2010s, culminating in a lethal attack on a Jewish supermarket in Paris in 2015, when, according to the World Jewish Congress, around 8,000 Jews left the country.

“I would define the breaking point as when a significant number of people start to move,” he said.