Met chief tells MPs 'British Jews are not safe' in London after six-week surge in attacks

The Metropolitan Police Commissioner, Sir Mark Rowley, told MPs on the Commons home affairs select committee on Wednesday that "British Jews are not currently safe in their capital city", framing the past six weeks as a "sustained period of attack" on Jewish Londoners. Counter-terrorism officers, Rowley wrote, are now running 11 investigations off the back of the assaults; 35 people have been arrested, 10 have been charged and one has already been convicted.

The investigations span an arson attack on a Hatzola ambulance on March 23, nine further arson or attempted-arson incidents, and the April 29 Golders Green terror stabbing in which two British Jews were attacked on the street, alongside a separate inquiry into discarded items found in Kensington Gardens. The Met disclosure lands alongside an arrest on May 10 by counter-terror officers of a 45-year-old man and a 52-year-old woman on suspicion of conspiracy to commit arson at the former East London Central Synagogue, and a Sunday rally outside Downing Street that drew thousands under the "Standing Strong: Extinguish Antisemitism" banner.

King Charles travelled to Golders Green on Thursday and met two of the men stabbed on April 29: Shloime Rand, 34, and Moshe Ben Baila, 76, also known as Norman Shine, at the Jewish Care charity centre. Also present were Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis, head of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth, and Rowley himself. Shine, stabbed in the neck outside a bus stop, said the king "didn't let go of my hand … he is the king but I felt a genuine warmth and concern", calling the visit "extremely important" for the wider Jewish community. Charles also spoke separately with members of Shomrim, the volunteer Jewish community police force that helped respond on April 29, greeted crowds along Golders Green Road, was presented with a traditional loaf of challah outside Grodz bakery, and met children from a local primary school.

The alleged Golders Green attacker, Essa Suleiman, 45, has been remanded in custody on three counts of attempted murder. Police allege he tried to kill a friend of 20 years, Ishmail Hussein, at Hussein's Southwark home before stabbing the two men in the street the same day. Suleiman was born in Somalia and came to the UK legally as a child in the 1990s. He was reported to Prevent, the government's anti-extremism programme, in 2020, but the case was closed the same year.

The Government has raised the UK's national terror threat level from substantial to severe in response. The Met has announced a new Community Protection Team of about 100 officers initially focused on antisemitic threats, funded from an £18m slice of a £25m Whitehall package that has already paid for 1,000 additional officer shifts a week. The force recorded 140 antisemitic offences in London in April — the highest monthly total since recording rules were changed in March 2024 — and has made around 50 arrests across related hate-crime probes, with eight people charged.