Britain in 2026 is beginning to resemble Germany in the 1930s, writes Andrew Percy

After 14 years of working for my beloved home constituency, I called time on my Commons career amidst a deluge of Jew hate.

Fighting antisemitism has long been close to my heart. This oldest of hatreds never really disappeared from society and throughout my time in Parliament, I sounded the alarm.

It was clear around the time that Jeremy Corbyn took control of the Labour Party that anti-Jewish racism was finding fertile ground. Still, nothing prepared me for the onslaught unleashed by Hamas’s vile terror rampage on October 7, 2023.

That dark day, antisemitism was given a shot of steroids. Since then, it has seemingly become perfectly acceptable for British Jews – who have nothing to do with the events of the Middle East – to be discriminated against and targeted.

Jews have been murdered on their way to places of worship and abused in public for simply ‘looking Jewish’.

Jewish students are isolated on campuses and physically assaulted by fellow students.

Ambulances generously sponsored by Jews to serve everyone in their local area were blown up.

All the while, political parties have at best run scared of the intimidatory surge of sectarianism, Islamism and far left extremists or at worst actively courted their vote. As a British Jew, it pains me deeply to say that 2026 Britain looks an awful lot like 1930s Germany.

I saw the failure at the top of Government to acknowledge the scale of the problem, let alone its source, during my time in Parliament.

Right from the first hate march in London on October 7 - which by the way occurred whilst the body parts of those murdered by Hamas were still being collected - I was on my feet in the Commons raising the numerous examples of grotesque antisemitic placards, tropes and chants openly on display at these marches.

Even the projection of the genocidal slogan “from the river to sea” onto the exterior of Parliament. Nothing happened.

I even hit a brick wall when I raised specific examples during Prime Minister’s Questions, which could be readily acted upon.

Take the outrageous case of a primary school in the North West of England, which proudly boasted about letters written by their pupils to their MP, which included such gems as, “I believe that not all Jewish people are bad” and “How do you send letters believing the Western media on how Hamas is a terrorist group”. Nada.

I chased and chased Ministers, Special Advisors, and even the departmental cat. All the while, I couldn’t escape the thought that if a school proudly shared letters from pupils saying, “I believe that not all black people or all Muslims are bad”, more would have been done. I know more would have been done.

For my troubles in publicly saying that we might have a problem, I got outrageously smeared as being ‘Islamophobic’ and received death threats.

And yet, if the correspondence I was receiving from my constituents was anything to go by, the public could see what was happening.

The powers that be, however, wanted little to do with it. I say all this as someone who served as a Conservative MP. The party of law and order and upholding British values.

We are amidst a national emergency. As Labour Minister Alex Davies-Jones rightly said, “the time for warm words has come and gone”.

In recent years, Jews have been served more ‘warm words’ than we’ve had hot dinners, but few in the community feel that these will result in a concerted national effort to tackle the source of this epidemic of anti-Jewish racism.

The outpouring of Jew hate and violence has not happened by accident. Leaders cannot claim they were not warned. They have been repeatedly, and have failed to act because - let’s be honest about it - they either fear the reaction or the loss of votes in certain demographics.

Britain used to be a country that stood for decency, would match words with actions, and would have been appalled to think that we have a section of our society now scared to show its identity.

Following the latest terror outrage, we are being treated to yet more handwringing from our leaders. The cliché “all forms of hate” will be inevitably uttered - great, but can we perhaps just be allowed a moment to talk about Jew hate?

My fear is that Jews will be left unprotected and expected to swallow the pathetically feeble and weak denial of the scale of the problem posed by Islamists and their useful idiot far-left bedfellows. If there is one thing I’m certain of, it’s that British Jews will be left to shout into the void yet again after the next inevitable terror massacre. It won’t be long.

---

Andrew Percy is the former Member of Parliament for Brigg & Goole (2010-24) and was once the Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group Against Antisemitism.

LBC Opinion provides a platform for diverse opinions on current affairs and matters of public interest.

The views expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official LBC position.

To contact us email opinion@lbc.co.uk