Racism, discrimination and intimidation towards the Jewish community is at a level I've never seen, says Kemi Badenoch
Investigators are working to establish whether Iran has paid British criminals to carry out acts on UK soil.
Kemi Badenoch has told LBC she has "never seen the level of racism, discrimination, intimidation and attacks" that have been directed at the Jewish community, amid a recent spate of attacks in the country.
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The Conservative Party leader told LBC we have reached a point where "people shrug their shoulders" at what is happening to the Jewish community.
She also suggested that if it were another community being attacked in the same way, there would be a "national emergency".
She told LBC's Nick Ferrari at Breakfast: "As a black woman in this country, I have never seen the level of racism, discrimination, intimidation and attacks that have been directed at the Jewish community.
"And I think that if people were firebombing black churches, the way that synagogues have been attacked, people killed, being firebombed, the ambulance services being firebombed, I think there'd be a national emergency."
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"We have now reached a point where people shrug their shoulders at what is happening to Jews," Ms Badenoch added.
"This is not right. And I don't want Jewish people to leave this country. I don't want to hear about them seeking asylum in the US."
The Conservative Party leader said she would help the government if Sir Keir Starmer decided to proscribe the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist organisation.
"We need to stand up and protect that community. And if you have something that is looking like taking it seriously on national emergency level, we need to start looking at who is doing this.
"Is it the IRGC? Are they sponsoring proxies here? So, a security issue?
"But also all of these people in the press and in the public institutions who think this is a game, they need to start being tackled too."
Her comments come as investigators are working to establish whether Iran has paid British criminals to carry out acts on UK soil, after a series of incidents, including an arson attack on Jewish community ambulances and attempted arson attacks at synagogues in Finchley and Kenton and a former Jewish charity in Hendon.
Another incident saw a drone flown near the Israeli embassy in London, and a petrol bomb was thrown towards the site of Volant Media, the parent company of Persian news channel Iran International.
A group that calls itself Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamia, the Islamic Movement of the Companions of the Right, which is suspected to be Iran-backed, has claimed responsibility for most of the incidents, along with other attacks in Europe since March 9.
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Met Police Deputy Commissioner Matt Jukes tells @NickFerrariLBC that it's going to take all of us to combat the rise in anti-semitism. pic.twitter.com/QLh25QVMB9
Metropolitan Police Deputy Commissioner Matt Jukes told LBC: “We’re going to look incredibly closely at whether those claims stand up.
“They’re intended to intimidate so we have to distinguish what’s happening online and being broadcast and claimed, from those things we can prove.
“But I think this is an extraordinary period.
“We’ve sadly seen hate crime in our communities before, we’ve seen radicalisation towards terrorism.
“But now what we’ve got is the prospect of a foreign state actually using that as a mechanism to sow discord, discontent and to create anxiety in our communities.
“That is really troubling.”
“Thugs for hire” are risking long prison sentences for inconsequential amounts of money if they agree to carry out crimes for foreign states, he added.