Bryn Jones on the political exploitation of a moral panic
What links a spate of property vandalism in a London suburb to the UK Home Office’s cancellation of entry visas for two Turkish-American online “influencers”? Answer: the political exploitation of a “moral panic” by Labour ministers and MPs. In April of this year, several Jewish sites in London were attacked with bricks and crude Molotov cocktails, following an arson attack in Golders Green that burnt out two Jewish community organisation ambulances. Prominent Jewish leaders were quick to depict all these attacks as antisemitic hate crimes. A plausible inference, though neither perpetrators nor motives had then been identified. Then on 29th April, two Jewish Golders Green pedestrians were attacked by a knife-wielding Muslim man from South London.
Two and two make four, right? A political and media theme rapidly emerged that all these attacks derived from pro-Palestinian campaigners and their slogans at demonstrations. Repeating this meme, Government representatives vowed to “crack down” on demonstrators and campaigners who voiced provocative slogans. Police did indeed arrest a handful of demonstrators at a subsequent march against the far right on 16th May. Then on 3rd June, the political bandwagon took another turn. The Home Office confirmed that it had revoked the travel visas of US polemicists, Hasan Piker and his uncle Cenk Uygur. But the supposed causal chain between the North London violence and either the alleged antisemitism of marchers or the US radicals is entirely spurious.
The arson attacks, for which several London youths have been arrested, have been linked to Harakat Ashab al-Yamin l Islamia (HAYI), an online front organisation for the Iranian Revolutionary Guards. This theory is consistent with multiple evidence sources across Europe that “anti-western” states have taken to paying freelance, amateur yobs to commit publicity-generating acts of “terroristic” sabotage, although the London ones were mostly bungled by the inexperienced perpetrators. The alleged principal coordinator of HAYI, an Iraqi, Mohammed al Saadi, currently awaits trial in the US on terrorism charges.
The Golders Green knife attacker has no apparent connections with these operations. He had a history of mental illness and committal to a mental institution. On the very day of the stabbings, he also attacked his Muslim friend in Southwark before turning up in Golders Green. In other words, all these attacks involved either foreign provocateur schemes or one person’s mental illness. Not British zealots motivated by chants at demonstrations.
Other moral panics, such as dangerous dog attacks and teenage knife-crimes, take ages to translate into Government action. So, what catalysed this particular moral panic into immediate ministerial action? The long-standing backdrop of warfare in Palestine and an ever-alert pro-Zionism lobby must have played a part. But there is also a well-oiled machine within the Labour Party with its finger on the action button. Labour Friends of Israel (LFI) has at least 75 MPs and over half of Starmer’s original Cabinet as members. The decision of the Home Secretary, also an LFI member, to ban the two US activists was seemingly prompted by a demand from newly elected Labour MP, David Taylor. Despite his “soft left” profile on social and economic issues, Mr Taylor has been a regular critic of pro-Palestine campaigns as facilitating antisemitic rhetoric. He was quick to describe the Golders Green attacker as a “marauding antisemitic terrorist”.
On 27th May, he alleged Piker and Uygur were guilty of antisemitic “hate speech” and should be banned from entering the UK, where they were scheduled to speak at events including a debate in that hotbed of extremism, the Oxford Union. Within a mere four days, the Home Office revoked their visas. Although Taylor was amplifying other calls for a ban from influential voices in the Jewish community, his stridency stands out amongst Labour apologists for Israeli atrocities. Could this in any way be connected to his political base camp?
Taylor was active in Morgan McSweeney’s Labour Together (LT) group, which successfully discredited Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership and drove the campaign to replace him with Keir Starmer. LT’s ties to, and financial dependence on, wealthy supporters of Israel’s establishment are well documented. Indeed, Taylor received £5,000 towards his 2024 election campaign from Gary Lubner, a long-time supporter of Israeli causes and long-standing Labour donor.
Following exposés of its illegal and deceitful tactics (see Chartist March 2026, “But What about the McSweeney Files?”), Labour Together was disbanded. Rebranded as “Think Labour”, it claims a clean break with its predecessor’s scandals and misdemeanours. However, its exact membership and funding sources have yet to be revealed. No matter. Individual MPs still carry the torch of righteous pro-Zionism, continuing Labour Together’s mission. Understandable Jewish fears intensified by the moral panic over North London violence are exploited to curb the freedom of speech of forthright critics of Israel. It is yet another indictment of Labour cowardice that such patently spurious links can stifle legitimate protest at, and criticism of, Israel’s unbridled coercion.