Home Office Allocates £5M for Faith Site Patrols

The Home Office has allocated an additional £5 million to the Metropolitan Police and Greater Manchester Police to enhance patrols around faith sites in London and Manchester, following a series of antisemitic and other hate crime incidents.

The funding, announced by Security Minister Dan Jarvis, will support expanded deployments under Project Servator, a national policing initiative involving uniformed and plainclothes officers trained to identify suspicious behavior linked to serious crimes, including terrorism. These highly visible yet unpredictable patrols aim to deter potential threats and reassure communities, particularly Jewish and Muslim groups, amid rising hate crimes. Previous operations have resulted in arrests, seizures of drugs and weapons, and intelligence gathering for counterterrorism efforts.

The move comes in response to recent attacks, including an alleged arson incident on March 23 in Golders Green, northwest London, where four Hatzola Jewish community ambulances were set alight in the early hours. It also follows the fatal terror attack last October at Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation synagogue in Manchester, where Adrian Daulby, 53, and Melvin Cravitz, 66,...