Golders Green attack 'warped,' Mahmood to say after Jewish community ambulances set ablaze
Shabana Mahmood is set to call an attack on four Jewish community ambulances in North London "so warped it defies words".
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In a speech on Monday night, the Home Secretary will label the attack in Golders Green was "on this country and on us all".
Speaking at the annual dinner for the Community Security Trust, a charity which monitors antisemitism in the UK, Ms Mahmood will say the alleged hate crime comes at a "profoundly difficult time" for Jews in Britain.
Counter-terrorism police are leading the investigation but it is being treated as an antisemitic hate crime by the Metropolitan Police rather than as terrorism at this stage.
Ms Mahmood will say: "The truth is we meet at a profoundly difficult time for our Jewish community.
Read More: Today in north west London, Jewish lifesavers became targets, writes Rabbi Benjy Morgan
"I know that sense of distress and anxiety will only have been heightened by the appalling scenes from Golders Green this morning.
"To target Hatzola, an institution devoted to saving lives and serving the public in north London, is so warped it defies words.
"This was more than an attack on four ambulances. It was more than an attack on one organisation or on one community. It was an attack on this country and on us all."
She will pledge that those behind the attack will be pursued and made to face the consequences of their "vile actions", and say that Jews in the UK are being forced to live a "smaller life" because of antisemitism.
"Today, Jews in this country are being forced to live a smaller life: they are hiding the signs of their faith. They are fearful as they send their children to school, even when they attend a hospital appointment.
"And, of course, they attend synagogues that require physical security, as we here know all too well.
"History has repeatedly screamed its warning at us. And yet, here we are again, in 2026, with the oldest hatred rising once more."
She will pay tribute to the two men killed at Heaton Park synagogue last year as well as the injured and those who defended worshippers during the attack.
She will also praise CST staff and volunteers who give their time to protect their local synagogues as providing "an act of service that is also one of exceptional bravery".
The Home Secretary will draw a parallel between the antisemitism the country is facing and that which Sir Keir Starmer sought to tackle in the Labour Party.
"In the dark years of opposition, I fought the antisemitism that infected and disfigured the Labour Party, as did the Prime Minister.
"Now, in Government, we are doing the same in this country."
She is expected to point to her own moves in the Home Office to strengthen police powers around repeat protests, commission a review led by Lord McDonald on public order and hate crime, and blocking hate preachers and extreme right-wingers from entering the UK.
She will also tell the event: "I cannot pretend to know what you feel, facing this rising tide of antisemitism and a feeling that things are moving backwards, when they should be moving forwards.
"But I can tell you that I too have felt the surge in hatred that we are experiencing across society today. I have felt it directed at me personally and at my family, because of who we are and what we believe.
"Some, in these turbulent and dangerous times, seek to pit communities against one another.
"But division is no answer to hatred. I have always considered it this country's superpower: that different communities have lived, for so long, side by side."