Education – in the House of Commons at on 22 June 2026.
Bob Blackman
Chair, Backbench Business Committee
What steps her Department is taking to help tackle antisemitism on university campuses.
Bridget Phillipson
Minister for Women and Equalities, The Secretary of State for Education
Antisemitism has no place on university campuses or in our society. Universities must take strong action to tackle antisemitism, including by enforcing disciplinary measures and improving transparency. More widely, we are taking action across the education system, investing £7 million across schools, colleges and universities to combat antisemitism, ensuring for the first time that every child learns about the Holocaust, and I have commissioned an independent review into what further action we can take to tackle this poison in our schools and colleges.
Bob Blackman
Chair, Backbench Business Committee
The fact is that antisemitism and anti-Jewish hatred is rife in campuses across our country. The Secretary of State is right that it is up to vice-chancellors and principals to ensure that Jewish students feel safe on campus, but the sad reality is that a recent survey shows that only 3% of Jewish students feel safe to report antisemitism. Will the Secretary of State take prompt action to ensure that vice-chancellors do their job so that those committing antisemitic attacks are expelled from universities, and indeed if they are foreign students, they should also be deported?
Bridget Phillipson
Minister for Women and Equalities, The Secretary of State for Education
The hon. Gentleman has long campaigned on this issue and has a strong record in making clear his commitment to tackling antisemitism wherever it is found, and I share that commitment. I want to thank the Union of Jewish Students for its “Time for Change” report. I spoke recently at a launch event attended by vice-chancellors, where I made it clear that I expect universities to take action against antisemitism, which is completely unacceptable. Too many Jewish students on campus have been subject to harassment and intimidation. That is unacceptable and vice-chancellors must act.
Jack Rankin
Conservative, Windsor
My hon. Friend Bob Blackman rightly highlights the scourge of antisemitism on our campuses. Against that backdrop, is it not extraordinary that the Government have chosen to deny students access to the Office for Students free speech complaint scheme while extending it to everybody but students, which I raised with the ministerial team on
Bridget Phillipson
Minister for Women and Equalities, The Secretary of State for Education
I recognise the very real issue that the hon. Gentleman identifies, and I think there is a commitment across the House to tackling antisemitism in all its forms wherever it arises. But there is a fundamental point of misunderstanding here: students do have clear routes of redress and of complaint where things go wrong, and I am absolutely clear with university vice-chancellors and others that there can be no place for antisemitic hate speech on our campuses. Freedom of speech matters in our institutions, but antisemitic hate speech is not freedom of speech.
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