Kemi Badenoch warns Britain’s streets have become “theatres of intimidation,” pledging zero tolerance for anti-Israel extremism after Manchester synagogue massacre.
Badenoch: “We Will Not Let Our Streets Become Theatres of Intimidation”
In a fiery opening speech at the Conservative Party Conference in Manchester, party leader Kemi Badenoch condemned the surge of anti-Israel extremism gripping Britain, declaring that the UK’s streets have become “theatres of intimidation.”
Her remarks came just days after a deadly terror attack at a Manchester synagogue left two Jewish worshippers dead. Badenoch directly linked the climate of incitement to the wave of Pro-Palestinian demonstrations, calling them “carnivals of hatred directed at the Jewish homeland.”
“Slogans like ‘Globalize the Intifada’ are asinine,” she said. “They mean nothing at all—unless they mean targeting Jewish people for violence.”
“We Cannot Import Values Hostile to Our Own”
Badenoch issued an unambiguous call for unity and moral clarity:
“The message from this conference, from this party, from every decent and right-thinking person in this country must be that we will not stand for it any more. We cannot import and tolerate values hostile to our own.”
The Conservative leader vowed to reclaim Britain’s public spaces from those using protest as a platform for hate:
“You can think what you like, and within the bounds of the law you can say what you like, but you have no right to turn our streets into theatres of intimidation—and we will not let you do so any more.”
Government Moves to Quash Repeat Protests
Badenoch threw her support behind new government measures to restrict repeated mass protests, particularly those organized by Palestine Action, a group recently designated a terrorist organization by the UK government.
Her comments followed the arrest of nearly 500 people in central London on Saturday during illegal pro-Palestinian marches that defied pleas for restraint from Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Metropolitan Police Commissioner Mark Rowley.
Both officials had urged postponement of the demonstrations out of respect for Manchester’s grieving Jewish community — pleas that were ignored.
A Nation at a Crossroads
The Manchester synagogue massacre has sent shockwaves through Britain, exposing what Badenoch described as the “unchecked normalization of antisemitism masquerading as activism.”
She warned that Britain must decide whether to defend democratic values or allow extremist ideologies to infiltrate its civic life.
Political observers noted that Badenoch’s speech signals a tougher national stance on antisemitism, radical protest movements, and imported extremism, positioning her as a leader unafraid to confront political correctness in defense of British and Jewish communities.
