Leading Jewish community leader slams Starmer over 'inevitable' terror attack

A leading member of Manchester's Jewish community has slammed Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer for allowing antisemitism to flourish unchecked in the UK to such an extent that a terror attack was "inevitable".

Nigel Tobias, member of the Management Board of the Jewish Representative Council – is a Manchester-born Jew who used to attend the Heaton Park Synagogue until moving to the south of the city.

He has attended family weddings, bar and bat mitzvahs, birthdays and funerals and had friends attending on Thursday morning when the knife-wielding madman struck.

He says, whilst stunned by the sheer ferocity of the terror attack, he is not surprised it happened because he believes the Labour Government has allowed a wave of antisemitism to wash over the UK without attempting to address the extremism.

He said: “I am shocked but not surprised that this has happened. It has been two years in the making since over 1,000 Jewish people were raped and murdered during the October 7^th atrocity.

“I am Manchester born and bred and have suffered small amounts of abuse over the years, but nothing compared with what I have experienced in the past two years. Jews are now being openly compared to the Nazis. It’s sickening. I wear a lapel supporting bringing home the hostages, but I always take it off when I visit London.

“I find it completely outrageous that the UK has allowed itself to become somewhere where Jewish people live in constant fear. No other religion has to suffer this, but we have to have our own security guards outside our churches and members of the congregation put on stab vests and yellow jackets to protect people at prayer. The people attacked were probably carrying out this role alongside the security guard who was attacked.

“I’m not surprised…shocked…but not surprised. It’s been coming. I genuinely believe this government has basically supported the idea that Israel is a Pariah state. That has emboldened people to think that Jews are ‘fair game’.

The government needs to row back from this narrative. What is happening in Gaza is horrific and tragic, and it must come to an end. I’ve believed in a two-state solution since I was a teenager, but it needs Jews and non Jews to come together to have a rational debate and find a solution. It feels in the current climate that being rational is not allowed.

“Jewish people are the same as everyone else; there are good and bad people, people on the left of politics and people on the right, we are the same. But we are the only religion that is not able to go to church in the UK without worrying about our safety.”