His comments came less than 24 hours before both the Metropolitan and Greater Manchester forces confirmed that anyone “using [the chant] at future protest or in a targeted way should expect the Met and GMP to take action”.
"We will act decisively and make arrests,” read a statement from the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, Sir Mark Rowley, and the Chief Constable of Greater Manchester Police, Sir Stephen Watson.
Asked by the JC whether, in the aftermath of the terror attack on a Chanukah celebration in Sydney the government had plans to expedite any decisions, the prime minister said ministers were pressing ahead with the measures he’d announced after the Heaton Park terror attack – including a review powers to take account of the cumulative impact of repeat protests and a report on existing public order legislation by former director of public prosecutions Lord Macdonald, as well a review by Lord Mann, the government’s independent adviser on antisemitism, into antisemitism in the NHS.
“I think what we now need to do is to bring it together into one place and have a list of all the actions that we're taking, so people could see them as a list and also hold us to account,” said Starmer.
He continued: “We also have to make a bigger argument about who we are as a country and what it means to be a diverse country that actually is a safe and secure haven for all faiths. And I'm acutely aware that for many in our Jewish community, after Bondi Beach, after Heaton Park, they feel even more, even less safe than they did before, and it's got to this point where they feel it's normalised and where they have to hide their identity.”
Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer lights a candle as he hosts a reception to celebrate Hanukkah at 10 Downing Street in London on December 16, 2025. (Photo by Alastair Grant / POOL / AFP via Getty Images)POOL/AFP via Getty Images
Starmer referenced a recent visit to Bushey United Synagogue and said he was struck by a teenage boy who had undertaken such measures “just in case”.
“This is a teenager who is already, it must have been 13-14, making decisions about his own life, things he will not be doing because he doesn't feel that he can. And that is, that is a challenge to his very identity.”
The Chanukah reception itself was attended by several cabinet ministers, including Attorney-General Lord Hermer, Environment Secretary Ed Miliband and Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper, as well as Jewish communal figures, including Board of Deputies President Phil Rosenberg, CST’s Jonny Newton, Danny Stone from the Antisemitism Policy Trust, the Holocaust Educational Trust’s Karen Pollock MBE and Holocaust Memorial Day Trust’s Laura Marks CBE.
Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis joined the prime minister on stage and told the crowd that, after leaving Downing Street, he would be heading straight to Australia to be with the community in Sydney.
Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis (L) and Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer host at a reception to celebrate Hanukkah at 10 Downing Street in London on December 16, 2025. (Photo by Alastair Grant / POOL / AFP via Getty Images)POOL/AFP via Getty Images
Starmer, joined by his wife Victoria, who is Jewish, along with her sister and his father-in-law, thanked the Mirvis and described him as “a source of wise counsel to me personally”, sharing that they had spoken shortly after the atrocities in Bondi Beach.
The prime minister also offered his condolences to the family of British-born Rabbi Eli Schlanger, one of the victims of the terror attack, whose funeral took place in Sydney on Wednesday.
Starmer was applauded by the crowd after he acknowledged the threats posed to the Jewish community by Islamist extremism and said he was determined to root out antisemitism in the country as he had done in his own party.
The prime minister lit the shamash, while the chief rabbi lit the remaining candles and led prayers and songs, including all verses of Ma’oz Tzur.
