In a Westminster Hall debate led by Conservative MP Christian Wakeford on Monday, parliamentarians urged UK universities to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism, after reports emerged that 80 institutions had not yet done so.
The MP for Bury South said it was “extremely concerning” that most universities had not adopted the definition, as “all universities have not just a moral obligation but a duty to ensure that our Jewish students are safe on campus”.
He encouraged universities to “take accusations of antisemitism seriously and do their utmost to protect all Jewish students and staff members”.
Mr Wakeford underlined: “Students should not be put in a position where they have to keep event locations secret or provide security for themselves because their university refuses to support them”.
Speaking in the debate, Saqib Bhatti MP said that universities’ failure to adopt the IHRA definition is a “dereliction” of their “moral duty” to Jewish students.
Conservative MP Nicola Richards asked: “What world are we living in where we are more concerned about protecting our right to be racist than the right of minorities to live without fear or intimidation on our university campuses?”
Jonathan Gullis MP accused the University of Warwick of “gaslighting” Jewish students and the wider community over the issue. “The institutional hijacking of freedom of speech that is currently being used as a façade for universities and professors to scurry behind is appalling”, he added.
Recalling his own experience at the University of Manchester in 2007 after the student union voted to twin with a university in the West Bank that has been “linked to Hamas”, Robert Largan MP said: “I was standing with a small group of Jewish students while hundreds and hundreds of students stood on the union steps chanting, ‘2, 4, 6, 8, let’s destroy the Zionist state; 3, 5, 7, 9, death to Jews in Palestine’. That happened in the centre of Manchester, one of our major cities, on our streets, in our lifetime. That was an absolute disgrace”.
Responding to the debate, Education Minister Vicky Ford MP said the UK Government will “be clear” to universities that “there is much more progress to be made” on this issue.
This week, Universities Minister Michelle Donelan MP said if universities do not adopt the IHRA definition, the UK Government “will have to be forced into taking action to ensure that they do”.
