Home Secretary confirms public inquiry into deadly Heaton Park Synagogue attack

Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood has announced a public inquiry into the deaths of Melvin Cravitz and Adrian Daulby, who were killed during the terror attack at Manchester’s Heaton Park Synagogue in October 2025.

Announcing the inquiry to the House of Commons, Mahmood said:“On that awful day in October of last year, as our Jewish community celebrated Yom Kippur, two brave men, Melvin Cravitz and Adrian Daulby, lost their lives, and three others were seriously injured. What happened that day must be fully understood.

“So, as requested by the coroner, I can today announce a public inquiry into the deaths of Mr Cravitz and Mr Daulby.

“This will ensure that all evidence can be heard, including any sensitive national security material that could not otherwise be fully heard in the coroner’s court.”

She told MPs on Monday :”Tragically, Heaton Park was just one of a series of attacks on our Jewish community.

“In the year since, they have included: the stabbing of two Jewish men in Golders Green, north London, with a trial now set for March 2027; a failed attack on the Israeli Embassy, for which the attacker was last week jailed for 20 years; a spate of arson attacks across North London; and, last month, just hours before Yom Kippur began, a foiled but potentially lethal plot on the Jewish community in Manchester.

“In this case, two men, both Iranian nationals, have now been charged with terrorism offences. I pay tribute to the police and the security services for what was a long-running investigation, conducted with their customary professionalism and skill. ”

Mahmood continued:”Faced with the threat posed to our Jewish community, we have increased funding to the police by an additional £250 million to boost police presence in key Jewish areas and tackle antisemitism on our streets.

“But I know we cannot simply build higher walls around our Jewish community and expect them to live in fear. So we must root out the evil of antisemitism wherever it lurks in society. This Government is committed to that effort, tackling antisemitism wherever it is found: be it online, in our schools and universities, in our public services, or on our streets. ”

In September, Judge Alexia Durran, Chief Coroner of England and Wales, said she was writing to the Home Secretary to recommend that the inquests be converted into a public inquiry.

At a hearing earlier this month, Home Office lawyers applied to withhold some information from MI5 from being made public at a future inquest, citing national security concerns.

Inquests were then planned into the deaths of Daulby, 53, and Cravitz, 66, following the attack by Jihad al-Shamie, 35, a Syrian-born British citizen.

Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp told MPs:”It is more important than ever that we double our efforts to fight antisemitism and Islamist extremism.”

Al-Shamie launched his attack on 2 October last year by driving into the perimeter gates of the synagogue then attacking worshippers with a knife while wearing a fake suicide belt.

Cravitz died from multiple knife wounds, while Daulby was killed by a bullet fired by armed officers who had been scrambled to the scene.