LONDON — Britain is losing an “uphill battle” against Islamist extremists, who are deploying antisemitism as a “strategic tool” to undermine Western societies, a leading expert has warned.

In an interview with The Times of Israel, Charlotte Littlewood paints a disturbing picture of the United Kingdom’s failure to tackle Islamism, which, she believes, is strengthening the hand of groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood.

Littlewood, lead researcher for the UK at the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy, also cautions about the rise of “young, hip” Islamists online, who are forging alliances not simply with the far left, but also with the extreme right.

Littlewood’s warning comes against the backdrop of rising antisemitism in the UK in the wake of the bloody October 7, 2023, Hamas invasion of Israel and the ensuing conflict in Gaza. Many of Britain’s cities and university campuses have witnessed fiercely anti-Israel demonstrations, while synagogues and Jewish schools have been forced to ramp up their security.

In February, the Community Security Trust, which monitors antisemitism, reported near-record levels of antisemitic incidents in Britain in 2025. On Yom Kippur, a terrorist attack at the Heaton Park Synagogue in Manchester resulted in the deaths of two worshipers. The attack sparked the highest daily totals for anti-Jewish hate incidents recorded throughout 2025.

Last week, UK ministers followed up on a pledge after the Heaton Park attack to publish their plans to combat extremism. The “social cohesion plan” says the government will make it harder for extremists and “hate preachers” to enter the UK, publish an annual “state of extremism” report, and launch a crackdown on antisemitism on campuses and in public services such as the National Health Service. Regulators will also be given new powers to shut down charities that promote extremism.

Jewish groups, such as the Jewish Leadership Council and the Board of Deputies of British Jews, gave the plan a cautious welcome — but warned that implementation and “clear leadership” will be key.

Both Labour and Conservative politicians say action can’t come soon enough. Conservative parliamentarian Paul Goodman warned in a debate in the House of Lords last month that the UK lacks an “overarching policy that seeks to counter Islamist and other extremism in our institutions and civil society.”

While Goodman faulted governments of both parties, he noted that Labour’s response to extremism since taking office in July 2024 has been sluggish. It has left the post of Commissioner for Countering Extremism vacant and its post-election “rapid review” of extremism policy has never been published.

Labour MP Damien Egan, chair of a newly established cross-party group on countering extremism, has similarly said that there has been “an underestimation of the scale of the extremism problem and the continuing failure to distinguish the extremist threat from the terrorist threat and the wider harms the former creates.”

In its first report, “Time to Act,” Egan’s parliamentary group cautioned that the UK is “flying blind” in the face of the rising threat.

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© The Times of Israel