Lord Howarth of Newport (Lab) [V]

My Lords, first we should ask, what are the universities doing? Amid the deeply concerning increase in incidents of antisemitism on university campuses, what I have found perhaps most shocking are the reports of antisemitic behaviour by academics. The Community Security Trust reports academics as well as students with “limited” understanding of what constitutes antisemitism. How can this be so? It is not for lack of clear-cut practical advice. While some universities have strong and effective procedures for dealing with antisemitism, others have been equivocal. Recent evidence from the educational charity StandWithUs UK suggests that antisemitic attitudes and behaviours are actually worse in supposedly elite Russell group universities. So, we have a twin problem: of ignorant or bigoted academics, and vice-chancellors too scared to face down the mob on campus. The CST reports a large rise in antisemitic incidents during the period following the unspeakable massacre of Jews by Hamas on 7 October 2023, and during the subsequent ferocious and relentless military conflict between Israel and Hamas in Gaza. Emotions have of course run very high on campuses. It may be that young people who have not been taught to make the distinction between legitimate criticism of the policies of the State of Israel and illegitimate slurs against Jews generally—or who have simply been carried away by passion or pro-Palestinian rhetoric—have transgressed into the latter. I do not know. But what has been happening strengthens the case made by my noble friend Lord Mann for better education in schools about antisemitism and justifies the Education Secretary’s recent grant of funds for this purpose. Yet however fallible some academic leaders may be, it goes against the grain for me to look to government, or any government-appointed agency, to regulate the internal affairs of universities. I do not like to see the Office for Students tasked with policing academic freedom; it should be the other way round. Public intellectuals, securely based in universities, should be articulating the principles that matter, leading public debate and invigilating the politicians. Nigel Farage brags that he will be the next Prime Minister. When that great day comes, do we want it to be normal that a government agency lays down the law to universities in sensitive matters of policy, with power to fine them when it disapproves of their conduct? We are at a crisis in western history. The growth of antisemitism in our universities and elsewhere is one manifestation; the rise of neo-fascist parties—Trump’s Republicans and other parties across Europe—under- pinned by a new indifference among young people to democratic values, is another. While we may deplore the attack on academic freedom and the rule of law by the Trump Administration, let us not overlook the attrition of university funding and the justice system by successive Administrations in our own country. The collapse of the western alliance and the global trading system—and the suffering and impoverishment that will follow—at the hands of a wicked ruler, elected to power through democratic process, leaves us on the edge of an abyss. It is, first of all, the responsibility of our universities themselves—all of them—to ensure that they are islands of rationality, where research, teaching and the fearless exchange of ideas can flourish, free of the horror of antisemitism.