The British government has committed more than £250 million to strengthen police protection for Jewish communities across England and Wales, a direct response to a wave of antisemitic violence that has included stabbings, arson, and a deadly synagogue attack. The funding, to be spent over three years, will place over 500 additional officers in neighbourhoods with significant Jewish populations, with 300 of those deployed in London and 80 in Greater Manchester. Patrols outside synagogues, schools, and community centres will be intensified, and plain-clothes specialist units will be expanded.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer described the rise in antisemitism as “a test of our values as a country,” stating that tackling it had been central to his leadership. The Home Office said the package would also finance education programmes aimed at countering antisemitic attitudes and extremism. London’s Metropolitan Police Deputy Commissioner Matt Jukes noted that Jewish communities faced “an exceptional threat” from rising hate crime, terrorism, and interference from hostile states. Mark Gardner, chief executive of the Community Security Trust, welcomed what he called a “serious increase” in support at a critical moment for British Jews.

The allocation includes £86 million for the Metropolitan Police, £59 million for counter-terrorism policing to bolster protective security and address state threats, and £43 million distributed among seven other force areas with sizeable Jewish communities, including Hertfordshire, Essex, and West Yorkshire. The package follows a series of attacks: in late April, two Jewish men were stabbed in the Golders Green district of London in an incident police classified as terrorism; in October 2025, an attack on a Manchester synagogue killed two people; and a string of arson attempts targeted synagogues and Jewish-linked vehicles in the capital. After the Golders Green stabbings, the UK raised its national terrorism threat level to “severe.”

In the aftermath of that attack, Starmer explicitly accused Iran of seeking “to harm British Jews,” a charge that underscored the government’s view that state actors are contributing to the threat environment. The new funding, which comes on top of a £25 million emergency injection announced in April, also supports Project Servator, a programme of unpredictable, highly visible police deployments designed to deter and detect hostile activity. The government has framed the investment as part of a broader coordinated response that includes action in schools, universities, and online spaces. With the funding now committed, the focus shifts to implementation, as police forces begin to recruit and deploy the additional officers and the Home Office rolls out the associated educational initiatives.