Get our award-winning daily news email featuring exclusive stories, opinion and expert analysis
I would like to be emailed about offers, event and updates from Evening Standard. Read our privacy notice.
Sadiq Khan has announced a further £875,000 to tackle extremism in London amid a rise in antisemitic and anti-Muslim hate.
There were 994 antisemitic hate crimes recorded in the capital in the first half of 2026, a 24 per cent increase from 800 over the same period in 2025.
Reports of anti-Muslim hate and prejudice are meanwhile running at roughly twice the rate seen in 2023. There were 1,031 reports in the first six months of this year, already surpassing the 1,028 recorded across the whole of 2023.
Police, community leaders and ministers have been working to address the rise in hostility, with the Mayor of London now committing a further £875,000 to efforts to tackle extremism.
“There’s absolutely no place for hate crime in our capital and I’m committed to working with partners to help tackle this scourge,” Khan said.
Earlier this year, Jewish neighbourhoods in London were targeted in a series of violent attacks, including arson attacks on community charities and the Hatzola ambulance service, vandalism at synagogues and stabbings in Golders Green.
There have also been nine separate attacks on mosques reported over the past year, alongside reports of women being abused for wearing hijabs and incidents of anti-Muslim graffiti.
In May 2026, far-right activists organised a large-scale march in central London, where speakers used openly anti-Muslim rhetoric. Civil rights groups said the hostility spilled over into street intimidation and counter-protests in the capital.
“As the disgusting attacks on London’s Jewish and Muslim communities have shown and rising rates of antisemitism and anti-Muslim hate in the capital, there is a small minority who continue to use the ongoing conflict in the Middle East to sow seeds of division,” Khan added.
“They will never prevail and Londoners will always be united against these malicious acts of hatred.
Sadiq Khan announces 1,000s more council and housing association homes for London
Stop damaging London mobile phone signal, Sadiq Khan tells developers
Burnham to give mayors powers to force through building plans
