‘Online attack' on Jews on the rise in UK

As many as 1,805 complaints related to anti-Semitic incidents were lodged in Britain in 2019, which is an all-time high, said the Community Security Trust (CST), a charity tracking the issue. The trust alleged that more than a tenth of the complaints was "related to the Labour Party". Online attacks account for around 39 per cent of such incidents in the UK.

The trust, which offers support to Jewish people in Britain, said the figure represented a seven per cent jump on the number reported in 2018.

According to the charity, online attacks are only a sign and may understate the scale of the problem.

The entity has been recording anti-Semitic incidents since 1984.

The issue featured prominently in December's general election campaign when Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn was damaged by accusations of allowing anti-Semitism to grow in his party.

It is learnt that the Equality and Human Rights Commission is looking into the allegations.

December saw the highest rate of complaints when there was "prominent and intense debate over allegations of anti-Semitism in the Labour Party", the charity said.

Of the 1,805 reported incidents, 224 were said to be related to the labour party.

"It is clear that both social media and mainstream politics are places where anti-Semitism and racism need to be driven out if things are to improve in the future," said CST chief executive David Delew.

The Labour Against Anti-Semitism pressure group called the report "damning" for the 120-year-old party, which suffered its worst election defeat since 1935.

"We believe that the true scale of left-wing anti-Semitism in the UK is even wider and more deeply embedded than the report suggests," it said in a statement.