Jewish MP barred from school visit over fears he might ‘inflame teachers’ reveals Steve Reed

Communities Secretary Steve Reed has revealed that a “Jewish colleague” was refused permission to visit a school in his own constituency, after officials cited fears his presence might “inflame teachers.”

In conversation with Jewish News news editor and publisher Justin Cohen, the senior minister told an audience at the Jewish Labour Movement’s annual conference that his colleague, believed to be an MP,  had been “refused permission to visit a school in his own constituency in case his presence inflames the teachers.”

Reed revealed:” What I’m talking about is identifying those places where antisemitism festers and grows so we can root it out.
“That is absolutely what we have to do. But we are far away from that point right now, far away.

“I give you any number of examples….. I have a colleague who is Jewish, who has been banned from visiting a school and refused permission to visit a school in his own constituency, in case his presence inflames the teachers. That is an absolute outrage.”

Asked what his response had been to this incident, Reed said:”They will be called in, and they will be held to account for doing that, because you cannot have people with those kinds of attitudes teaching our children. You just can’t have it.”

The shock revelation came as Reed was discussing his awareness of how the community had come to face rampant antisemitism in the aftermath of the October 7 Hamas terror attacks in Israel, an incident he said should have instead prompted solidarity with Britain’s Jews.

Reed, who spoke at the event ahead of an appearance later by Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson, said the incident was a prime example of the spread of Jew-hatred across many areas of society.

During a fascinating and honest conversation, Reed appeared to accept Cohen’s criticism that the government had failed in its attempt to stem the rise of antisemitism, pointing to the Heaton Park Synagogue killings, the recent case of the Egyptian “kill Zionists” Alaa Abd El Fattah’s historic social media posts, along with other horrendous incidents.

Reed accepted that there had been a reluctance to take action over chants such as Globalise The Intifada and Death to The IDF, which he himself considered to be incendiary.

He also referenced the Jewish News and the confirmation that a company said it “wasn’t comfortable” working with newspaper.

Reed said it reminded him “of 1930s Germany, not Britain in the 2020s”.

“We have to call this stuff out,” he added. “We have to have consistency, and we have to be prepared to change the law when it happens. Otherwise, we are legitimising this at the fringes, and that’s where it grows from.”.

The minister, a long-time ally of Keir Starmer, also refused to rule out taking action against councils that try to adopt Israel boycott policies.

“If it becomes necessary, we can look at that councils should be focusing on council services and not playing international politics. Councils don’t have foreign policy,” he said.

“They don’t need foreign policy. They need to be looking at how they’re caring for older people, fixing the potholes in the road and getting fly, tipping off the corner of the streets where people live. I applied that to myself when I was a council leader, and I will require it of council leaders across the country today.”

He also declared, “I am a Zionist,” publicly affirming his solidarity with the Jewish community and the right of Israel to exist as a homeland for the Jewish people.

Offering revealing insights into his enagement with the community, Reed said:”Two Jewish mums came to see me at my advice surgery, to tell me that there had been a cultural day at their children’s school where they were given biscuits in the shape of Israel and then iced them with the flag of Palestine.”

Reed said this was a case of “teaching children things that are antisemitic” and the government must “understand where this is coming from and root it out right at the source.”

In a seperate incident Reed described being intimidated at his home by angry protestors and becoming so concerned he called the police.

He said: “The police didn’t even come when we called the police. I had my neighbours out there shouting at them because they were scaring their children. I had a member of my family vomiting down the toilet in fear.

“Even though I was able to give the names of two of those individuals to the police, nobody was ever prosecuted for it. The person that organised the incident is a teacher trainer.”

Asked about the pro-Palestine protests outside Israeli restaurant Miznon in Notting Hill,  he said it was horrific that anybody would think that “that was a way that they could behave in this country”, adding: “Blatant, outright racism is what it is.”

Reed pledged  the government would “ensure that there is absolute clarity and consistency against these kind of incidents wherever they arise, whether it’s the language imagery or placards that are on marches, or whether it’s behaviours outside businesses.”

An earlier version of this article missed out a line separating Reed discussing a meeting with two Jewish mothers at his surgery, and a different incident at his home. This has been amended.