Johnson says UK universities have been ‘tolerant of antisemitism for too long’

Boris Johnson has warned that UK universities have “for far too long been tolerant of casual or indeed systematic antisemitism.”

Responding to a question from Andrew Percy MP – who raised the invitation by the National Union of Students to the rapper and conspiracy theorist Lowkey – the Prime Minister added: “I hope that everybody understands the need for rapid, and indeed irreversible change.”

Johnson said it was important that the UK had an antisemitism task force “devoted to rooting out” the problem “in education at all levels”.

Earlier Percy, who co-chairs the All Party Parliamentary Group Against Antisemitism raised the issue of the NUS invitation to Lowkey to perform at a centenary event later this month, which was cancelled after an outcry from Jewish students.

Percy said the rapper had “engaged in antisemitic conspiracy theories” and then called for the PM to do “everything in his power to ensure campuses were a safe place for Jewish students.”