A new law targeting people carrying out violent attacks in the UK on behalf of foreign powers will apply to Russia and China as well as Iran, Work and Pensions Secretary Pat McFadden has said.
He told GB News: “It’s completely unacceptable that we’ve had these attacks in recent weeks, including one yesterday on a former synagogue in London. Last week, two people were stabbed in Golders Green, the ambulances that were burned, the attack on the Manchester synagogue a couple of months ago.
“This pattern is awful for the country. It’s not just a matter for the Jewish community. This is about who we are as a country. It should mean that people of any faith should be able to pursue their faith and their life in freedom and safety.
“And the fact is, that’s not true for the Jewish community in the UK at the moment, so it’s completely unacceptable, and that’s why the government is taking it very seriously, not just with measures like extra money for security, important though those are, but actually a bigger statement about who we are as a country.
“This is intolerable. It will not be tolerated. And if we have to change the law to increase efforts to stamp it out, then of course we will do that.
“Legislation in the forthcoming new parliamentary session will set out what we want to do, but the problem that we are getting at here is the changing nature of the threat, and that change in nature involves state-backed groups who may not have direct connections to the country involved.
“They may be hired criminals, as it were, to carry out attacks. Sometimes they may not even know the state that they’re working for, they may just be paid to carry out a violent attack. We need the law to be modernised, brought up to date to deal with that threat, and that’s what we’ve said we will do in the forthcoming legislative programme.
“I can’t get more details of sentencing guidelines on that right now, but the threat that we face is hired thugs, hired criminals, paid for by foreign states. We’re not going to stand for it, and we’re going to update the law to help us deal with it.”
Asked if the law would apply to Russia and China as well as Iran, Mr McFadden said: “Yes. Any hired criminals that are hired by a foreign state. I don’t think Iran has been the only state involved in this. So the power should go beyond one country.”
