Terror threat level decision branded a 'last resort' by antisemitism campaigner: 'It's just words!'

Georgia Pearce
Fri, 01 May 2026 14:01:03 +0000

The co-director of Labour Against Antisemitism has hit out at the decision to raise the terrorism threat level to "severe", branding it a "last resort".

Speaking to GB News, Alex Hearn stressed that the decision is "just words" from the Government, and argued its support for the Jewish community following a terror attack in Golders Green is "cliché".

Taking issue with the decision to raise the threat level, Mr Hearn stressed that the threat to the Jewish community has been rife for the "last two and a half years".

He said: "British Jews have been terrorised with a severe threat for at least the last two and a half years, so the authorities officially raising the threat for the first time since 2021, this is unusual.

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"It feels to me like a last resort. I understand that legislation is being fast tracked to ban the IRGC, but along with others I've been pressurising successive Governments to ban them for years now."

Mr Hearn expressed his frustration with Sir Keir Starmer's response to the Golders Green attack, arguing that his voiced support for the community is "just words".

He told GB News: "Just last year, the Intelligence and Security Committee revealed there had been at least 15 attempts to kill or kidnap prominent British Jews, it's extraordinary, and still nothing happened.

"Keir Starmer said that the response against this stabbing needs to be swift and agile and visible in his words, but the only thing that was swift and agile was his exit from Golders Green after waiting over 24 hours to visit."

He stated: "None of what he said is actually wrong, but it's just words and we've grown tired of hearing them."

Asked by host Christopher Hope what action he wants to see in the short and long term to protect the Jewish community, Mr Hearn made clear that Sir Keir needs to "step up" and "root out racism".

He explained: "There needs to be short-term solutions and also longer-term ones. Racism needs to be rooted out.

"Keir Starmer's asking people to step up when he needs to step up. He's asking people to consider Jewish pain when he hasn't done enough to ease that pain, so these words could have been written about himself."

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The antisemitism campaigner posed "two questions" to the Prime Minister: "For two and a half years we've heard 'globalise the intifada' on our streets, and now we're seeing it in practice, blood on the streets.

"I've reported people for the using this term and the police have denied its context to me, so it's a relief that our Prime Minister finally admits that it's racist.

"But I have two questions - if he knew it was racist, then why did he allow this and other things to go unchallenged for so long? And what exactly will he do about it?"

Reflecting on the heckling of Sir Keir in Golders Green, Mr Hearn admitted he is "glad" that the people in the suburb were able to "make their feelings clear" to the Prime Minister.

He told GB News: "There's no right to be racist. People like me, the Jewish community mainly, are very angry, very frightened and very distressed.

"And personally, I'm glad that their feelings were made clear to Keir Starmer. He was booed and heckled in Golders Green because racists have been dictating events for too long. They've been the loudest, most influential voices in the room, and this country has too often rolled over for them without enough objection."

Criticising the decision to raise the terror threat, Mr Hearn concluded that it feels like a "last resort" and a "PR release".

He said: "It feels like it always does, like a kind of PR release. We hear about concern and no place for antisemitism, they're just words. Organisations have been preemptively rolling over to accommodate hate.

"After the Heaton Park synagogue shooting, we heard all these platitudes and hand wringing, but there was no political will to act, so instead Jews bleed on the streets while these cliches roll out."