UK universities ‘infested with antisemitism’, former minister tells MPs

Concerns have been raised in the House of Commons over antisemitism in UK universities following a backlash against comments made by leaders of top academic institutions in the US.

Conservative former minister Sir Michael Ellis said UK universities were “infested with antisemitism”.

He hit out at leaders of leading universities in the US, suggesting their policies on what counted as tolerated speech were not adequately protecting Jewish students.

Sir Michael was speaking shortly after Commons Leader Penny Mordaunt wished all Jews around the world a happy Hanukkah and acknowledged this year’s celebrations would be “more difficult for everyone”.

Ms Mordaunt said the row in the US should act as a “wake-up call” for the academic community.

Sir Michael said it was an example of “top-level institutional Jew hatred” and urged the Government to protect British students.

Speaking in the Commons, he said: “This week, the presidents of Harvard, MIT and Penn appeared before the United States Congress.

“And when asked repeatedly whether calling for genocide of Jews breaks the university code of conduct and was harassment, they said it ‘depends on the context’ and whether the speech turned into actual genocidal conduct.

“It is impossible to imagine a call for mass murder of any other minority group being said to depend on the context. A call for mass murder of black people, or gay people, would rightly not be tolerated for a moment.

“This is top-level institutional Jew hatred at the highest levels of academia, and sadly universities in the United Kingdom are also infested with antisemitism.

“Would she agree that British students must be protected from this sort of poison?”

In response, Ms Mordaunt said she could not “tolerate the promotion of genocide”.

She told MPs: “I completely agree with (Sir Michael) and I think that those individuals from Harvard, MIT and Penn who gave that jaw-dropping evidence earlier this week have done the academic community a favour and this should really be a wake-up call of how abhorrent some of these policies are and how they are also being interpreted.

“It is amazing that it needs to be said, but if your code of conduct permits the advocation and promotion of mass murder, it might need a redraft.

“And there is a wider point here that we really look to these academic institutions to really be the guardian of the values we hold dear. Freedom of speech, freedom of thought is very important to academic inquiry and our democratic values.

“But we cannot in any way tolerate the promotion of genocide and the extermination of a group of people, it is absolutely abhorrent.”

She added: “I hope that every vice-chancellor and every university board will be asking to see these policies and ensure that they are in good shape.”