King Charles III of the United Kingdom said on Wednesday that the British government would take immediate action to combat antisemitism in the country.
“My government will take urgent action to tackle antisemitism and ensure all communities feel safe,” the monarch vowed in his speech at the ceremonial opening of parliament.
The United Kingdom had in 2025 the highest per capita rate of real-life antisemitic assaults of any country with a large Jewish community, according to a report published last month by Israel’s Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism Ministry. It recorded 121 violent antisemitic incidents, in a country with a Jewish population estimated between 292,000 and 313,000.
The total number of antisemitic incidents recorded in the United Kingdom last year—including threats, vandalism and intimidation—reached 3,700 cases in 2025, constituting a slight increase over the previous year and the second-highest tally on record, the Community Security Trust (CST) watchdog group said earlier this year.
The 2025 tally represents a 4% bump from the 3,556 anti-Jewish hate incidents recorded by CST in 2024. Last year’s total was 14% lower than the highest-ever annual total of 4,298 antisemitic incidents reported in 2023.
The latest report indicates a continuation of the elevated levels of Jew-hatred on display in the United Kingdom since Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas-led terrorists attacked Israel and triggered a regional war that set off a wave of antisemitic hatred in Western Europe and beyond. In 2021 and 2022, CST recorded 2,261 and 1,662 antisemitic incidents, respectively.
Last year, 872 Britons immigrated to Israel, despite the war with Iran. This was a 40-year high and a significant increase not only compared to the years 2023-2024, but also to pre-war levels (572 and 681 in 2021-2022).
