ELECTORAL POLITICS| GOVERNMENT POLICY

See also Anti-Terrorism and National Security for details of the North Manchester synagogue attack

3 October: Following an attack on a North Manchester synagogue that left two dead, the home secretary tells the media that the behaviour of those going ahead, in its aftermath, with planned protests in support of Palestine is ‘fundamentally un-British’ and ‘dishonourable’. She calls for the weekend’s national anti-war demonstration to be called off, citing a ‘rising tide of antisemitism’. (Guardian, 3 October 2025) 

3 October: Zack Polanski, leader of the Green Party and the only Jewish leader of a political party, criticises police and politicians’ attempts to cancel a planned Palestine Action demo in light of the Manchester synagogue attack, adding that ‘conflating protests against a genocide in Gaza and weaponising that against an antisemitic attack… is deeply irresponsible’. (Middle East Eye, 3 October 2025)

3 October: A number of Israeli politicians respond to the Manchester synagogue attack by linking it to the UK government’s recent decision to recognise a Palestinian state, with the Israeli prime minister saying that recognition had given a ‘huge reward to terrorism’. The Israeli foreign minister blames the British government’s failure to tackle anti-Israeli sentiment, which he conflates with antisemitism. (Middle East Eye, 3 October 2025)

3 October: Addressing a vigil close to the scene of the Manchester synagogue attack, justice secretary David Lammy is booed by some of the crowd and told, amongst other things, to ‘go to Palestine’. (Guardian, 3 October 2025)

4 October: At their annual conference, the Conservatives, having already announced that they will leave the ECHR, unveil plans to remove 750,000 illegal immigrants within five years under Trump-style deportation plans, with leader Kemi Badenoch saying ‘They’ll go back to where they came from’. (BBC News, 4 October 2025)

4 October: Andrej Babis’s right-wing populist ANO party wins the general election in the Czech Republic but fails to gain a majority, entering into talks with other parties, including anti-immigrant Freedom and Direct Democracy (SPD), which fought the election in alliance with far-right fringe parties. (BBC News, 4 October 2025)

6 October: The home secretary announces plans to give police powers to impose tougher conditions on protests, taking into account the ‘cumulative impact’ of previous similar demonstrations. She says large-scale demonstrations over Gaza have caused ‘considerable fear’ for the Jewish community and declares plans to strengthen outright bans on demonstrations. (Guardian, 6 October 2025)

6 October: At the party conference, shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick says Conservatives would abolish the Sentencing Council, as its guidelines have created a ‘two-tier nightmare’ of differential treatment in the courts. Kemi Bedenoch tweets ‘The Sentencing Council tried to give ethnic minority criminals more lenient sentences than their white counterparts. Identity politics will destroy our country’. (BBC News, 6 October 2025)

6 October: The Bar Council and high-profile barristers’ chambers hit back after shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick tells the Conservative party conference that ‘activist’ immigration judges with links to pro-migrant charities have undermined public trust in the courts. (BBC News, 6 October 2025; Garden Court News, 13 October 2025)

7 October: Shadow justice minister Robert Jenrick is criticised by Birmingham MPs for ‘stoking divisions’ after it emerges that, following a 90-minute visit to Handsworth, he complained to an audience at a Conservative Association dinner that he had not seen ‘another white face’ during the visit, and this was not the kind of country he wanted to live in. (Guardian, 7 October 2025)

8 October: The prime minister instructs the home secretary to investigate further curbs on protest, highlighting the need to take action against ‘inflammatory chants’ at pro-Palestinian protests, citing ‘globalise the intifada’. (Guardian, 8 October 2025)

9 October: The German parliament lifts immunity from prosecution from two AfD parliamentarians, one of whom is accused of making a Nazi salute and the other of defamation. (AFP, 9 October 2025)

10 October: Reform UK secures its biggest share of the vote ever in a council byelection, winning 65.1 percent of the vote in the Skelton East ward for Redcar & Cleveland council, seizing the seat from the Conservatives. (Daily Express, 10 October 2025)

11 October: Following a call from the opposition Law and Justice party, thousands of people take to the streets in Warsaw, Poland, to protest illegal immigration and European migration policy. (AFP, 11 October 2025)

13 October: In local elections in Portugal, the share of the vote for the far-right Chega party halves from previous parliamentary elections (to 11.86 percent). It gains control of three city halls: São Vicente on the island of Madeira; the central town of Entroncamento; and Albufeira in the south. (Guardian, 13 October 2025)

13 October: After Reform UK Warwickshire Council leader says he was the victim of a street assault, with his assailant allegedly calling him a ‘racist’ and a ‘fascist’, Nigel Farage says the language ‘echoes’ the prime minister’s ‘disgraceful ‘attack on Reform during Labour party conference. Farage also accuses the prime minister of putting a target on his back and ‘inciting’ the ‘radical Left’ against him and his supporters. (Daily Mail, 13 October 2025)

ANTI-FASCISM AND THE FAR RIGHT 

4 October: Former conservative minister Baroness Sayeeda Warsi, the Board of Deputies of British Jews and the Jewish Leadership Council criticise Israeli diaspora affairs minister Amichai Chiki’s invitation to Tommy Robinson to visit Israel as ‘sowing division’. Chiki had tweeted that ‘British patriot’ Tommy Robinson, a ‘courageous leader on the front line against radical Islam’, was a true friend of Israel. (Independent, 4 October 2025; Guardian, 5 October 2025)

5 October: Around 300 counter-protesters outnumber 100 anti-immigrant demonstrators who gathered in Bristol to protest the government’s use of hotels to accommodate asylum seekers, in the third anti-immigrant protest to take place in Bristol in recent weeks. (ITV News, 7 October 2025)

Anti-immigration march in Bristol met by large counter rallyhttps://t.co/EOOruxI6X7

— ITV News West Country (@itvwestcountry) October 5, 2025

6 October: As three men who attacked police during anti-asylum protests on 17 July outside the Bell Hotel in Epping, Essex, are jailed for violent disorder, it emerges in court that the hotel manager received an anonymous phone call on the day from a person asking ‘are you ready for tonight?’, and that protesters were told on social media to ‘mask up and bring rage’. (BBC News, 6 October 2025)

9 October: Prominent US anti-fascism academic expert Mark Bray is refused permission at a US airport to fly to Spain, hours after Donald Trump hosted a White House roundtable highlighting the impact of Antifa. Bray wanted to relocate his family to Spain after death threats followed claims by Turning Point USA that he is a ‘financier’ for the anti-fascist movement. (Guardian, 9 October 2025)

9 October: Police issue a dispersal order in the area around the Stanwell asylum hotel in Surrey, after reports of disorder and the arrest of a woman trying to gain access during protests at plans to replace families with single men. (BBC News, 9 October 2025)

11 October: Anti-immigrant protesters, chanting support for Tommy Robinson, demonstrate outside the Brook Hotel in Northorpe, Norwich. (Norwich Evening News, 11 October 2025)

12 October: Voters in Frankfurt an der Oder, Germany, block the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) from winning its first major city mayoral election, electing independent Axel Strasser over AfD’s Wilko Moller with 69.8 percent of the vote. The result blocks the AfD’s hopes of an urban breakthrough amid growing scrutiny, as Germany’s domestic intelligence agency classifies the party’s Brandenburg branch as a ‘confirmed far-right extremist’ group. (Al Jazeera, 12 October 2025)

12 October: At least 29 people are arrested in Amsterdam, Netherlands, as an anti-immigration protest organised by Netherlands in Uprising turns violent, with protesters setting off fireworks and damaging property. A counter-demonstration by anti-fascists remains peaceful. (Euronews, 12 October 2025)

ANTI-TERRORISM AND NATIONAL SECURITY 

3 October: Greater Manchester police start an investigation into terrorism after two people are killed and three left in a serious condition after an attack on Yom Kippur at the Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation Synagogue. Police confirm that the suspect has been shot dead, two arrests have been made and Operation Plato, the code given for ‘marauding terrorist attacks’, has been activated. The prime minister announces that more police will be deployed at synagogues across the country. (Guardian, 3 October 2025) 

Faith communities should be able to gather and worship without fear of harassment or violence. The news that at least two people have died in an attack on Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation synagogue in Greater Manchester is deeply distressing.

— Institute of Race Relations (@IRR_News) October 2, 2025

3 October: Following a pathologist’s report, the chief constable of Greater Manchester confirms that Jihad al-Shamie, the suspect in the Manchester synagogue attack, did not have a firearm and the only shots fired were by the police officers at the scene. One of the victims appears to have been accidentally shot dead by armed police officers, with another man who suffered serious though not life-threatening injuries hit by a police bullet. (Guardian, 3 October 2025)

POLICING| PRISONS| CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM

1 October: After a BBC Panorama undercover investigation captures misogyny, anti-Muslim sentiment, and racism at Charing Cross police station, including describing immigrants as ‘scum’ and calls for them to be shot, the Met commissioner says that prejudice has ‘put down deep roots’ in the force and left a ‘toxic legacy’, and the mayor of London announces a much delayed follow-up inquiry into the Casey report. (Guardian, 1 October 2025)

The BBC Panorama undercover investigation into Charing Cross police station shows a Met operational culture steeped in misogyny, racism and criminality, with one officer calling for immigrants to be shot.https://t.co/bCDnXwe6Lw

— Institute of Race Relations (@IRR_News) October 2, 2025

1 October: An Oxford University Migration Observatory analysis of government data finds that ‘foreigners’ are underrepresented as a proportion of prisoners jailed in England and Wales when compared with rates of incarceration among British citizens of similar age. (Guardian, 1 October 2025)

2 October: The Met police make 40 arrests at a demonstration near Downing Street in support of the Global flotilla for Gaza, the majority of which they say are linked to Public Order Act breaches of conditions to keep roads open and prevent serious disruption. (Evening Standard, 2 October 2025)

3 October: A serving Metropolitan police officer connected to the Central West Basic Command Unit is arrested on suspicion of perverting the course of justice in relation to the undercover footage aired on the BBC Panorama documentary. (Guardian, 3 October 2025)

3 October: The Children’s Rights Alliance for England says the authorisation of the new Taser 10 model poses new and serious risks to children, as barbs are higher than previous models and launched at greater velocity, with specific physiological implications for children because of their smaller stature, thinner skin and reduced body wall-to-organ proximity. (CRAE, 6 October 2025)

4 October: The Met police call on Defend Our Juries to call off a mass protest against the ban on Palestine Action on the ground that the weekend’s protest encourages ‘mass law- breaking’ in support of a ‘terrorist organisation’ at a time when the Met’s resources are needed to protect the Jewish community. (Guardian, 4 October 2025)

4 October: Police make almost 500 arrests at a silent vigil in support of Palestine Action organised by Defend Our Juries. (Guardian, 4 October 2025)

6 October: 62-year-old Global Sumud flotilla activist Sarah Wilkinson, who was detained and deported by Israel for pro-Palestinian activity, is detained on her return to Heathrow and placed under house arrest, charged with five offences under the Terrorism Act relating to support for a proscribed organisation (Hamas). (BBC News, 6 October 2025)

8 October: A police disciplinary hearing finds six Cambridgeshire police officers based in Peterborough guilty of gross misconduct for sharing racist, misogynistic and offensive messages for two years on a WhatsApp group. Five have already left the force. (ITV News, 8 October 2025)

10 October: Former British diplomat Craig Murray serves a legal petition on the Scottish solicitor general challenging the ban on Palestine Action in Scotland. (Guardian, 10 October 2025)

10 October: In Frankfurt, Germany, state police and prosecutors search homes and police stations connected to 17 police officers accused of assault, wrongful prosecution and obstruction of justice. (Deutsche Welle, 10 October 2025; DPA, 10 October 2025)

10 October: Citing free expression, Southwark Crown Court overturns Hamit Coskun’s conviction for a religiously aggravated public order offence. In February, he shouted abuse and set fire to the Qur’an outside London’s Turkish Consulate. Attending court, shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick says that while he does not agree with Coskun, he does not believe that he had committed a crime. (Independent, 10 October 2025; BBC News, 10 October 2025)

10 October: Southwark Crown Court finds a migrant who arrived on a small boat guilty of threatening to kill the leader of Reform UK in a Tik Tok post, and Farage says he ‘hopes and prays’ that the UK deports him. (Independent, 10 October 2025)

12 October: In Oslo, Norway, riot police use pepper spray to disperse a pro-Palestinian protest outside a World Cup qualifier match between Norway and Israel. (Al Jazeera, 12 October 2025)

13 October: In the first case resulting in an apology by a chief constable in relation to the proscription of Palestine Action, Kent police agree to pay damages to Laura Morton, who was threatened with arrest by armed police on 14 July in Canterbury under the Terrorism Act for holding a Palestine flag and signs saying ‘free Gaza’ and ‘Israel is committing genocide’. (Guardian, 13 October 2025)

14 October: The International Federation of Human Rights warns that governments across the West, and in particular in the UK, France, Germany and the US, are weaponising counter-terrorism laws and the fight against antisemitism to suppress dissent and support for Palestinian rights. The Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights writes to the home secretary asking her to review laws and protect the right to protest. (Guardian, 14 October 2025; Council of Europe, 14 October 2025)

ASYLUM | MIGRATION| BORDERS| CITIZENSHIP

Asylum and migrant rights

1 October: Donaldson Romeo, a Montserrat MP and a former premier, writes to the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office drawing parallels between the Windrush scandal and the treatment of two Montserrat British overseas territory citizens who are left without basic humanitarian assistance or free NHS care in the UK. (Guardian, 1 October 2025)

1 October: The prime minister announces that refugees will no longer automatically receive the ‘golden ticket’ of resettlement and family reunion rights, and will have to prove they are contributing to society. He adds there will be fundamental changes to the rights of people granted asylum, to address ‘pull factors’ for people ‘asylum shopping’ for the country that offers the most. (Guardian, 1 October 2025)

1 October: Days before they are due to start courses, hundreds of international students intending to study at University College London are told that UCL cannot issue a confirmation of acceptance for studies, essential for student visa applications, as a surge in demand has resulted in over-recruitment. UCL advises students to defer their studies until 2026, leaving many in limbo, facing costs and possible deportation. (Guardian, 1 October 2025)

13 October: A letter signed by 100 cross-party MPs and members of the House of Lords calls on ministers to exercise discretion to allow Palestinian students with places at UK universities to bring their children, otherwise they must abandon study plans or leave their children in Gaza. (Guardian, 13 October 2025) 

Borders and internal controls

3 October: The Home Office funds a new £350,000 police boat in Devon and Cornwall with state-of-the-art marine electronics, including a long-range infrared camera and an underwater drone, to address an anticipated increase in migrant arrivals. (Gloucester Live, 3 October 2025)

3 October: Years of criticism of the EU and Italy for the migration pact with Libya come to a head as rescue NGOs say that the Libyan coastguard is firing live ammunition directly at them. The EU dismisses demands to stop funding the Libyan coastguard following the shooting incidents. (Arab News, 3 October 2025; EU Observer, 13 October 2025)

10 October: A Statewatch report reveals that during a videoconference in France in September with employment agency France Travail to recruit border guards for Frontex, attended by 170 jobseekers, a police commander and ex-Frontex liaison officer described the job as ‘hunting migrants’, a phrase the organisers decried as ‘clearly inappropriate’ in an apology. (Statewatch, 10 October 2025; StreetPress, 22 September 2025)

14 October: A report from SAR NGO Sea-Watch documents 60 violent attacks by Libyan militias, including the coastguard, on migrants and rescuers in the central Mediterranean since 2016, rising from 3 in 2016 to 11 in 2023 and 2024, and 9 so far in 2025. A group of MEPs say EU support emboldens the coastguard to carry out further gross abuses, including human trafficking, forced labour, starvation, sexual violence and torture. (Politico, 14 October 2025) 

14 October: Fifteen French and British human rights groups issue a legal challenge in France to the ‘one in, one out’ deal, arguing that it provides inadequate protection for those returned, as 25 returned asylum seekers issue a joint statement on their ‘extremely difficult and unsafe’ conditions, without access to proper healthcare, safe housing and adequate food, and separated from families in the UK. (Guardian, 14 October 2025)

Reception and detention 

30 September: French authorities evict around 600 migrants sheltering in a disused warehouse in Calais, sealing off access to it as city authorities prepare to install boulders to prevent its reoccupation. (Le Monde, 30 September 2025)

3 October: In his role as shadow housing secretary, Conservative party chair Kevin Hollinrake is found to have received thousands of pounds in hospitality from Living Redefined, a company presenting itself as a lucrative route for landlords to enter the asylum accommodation market. (Guardian, 3 October 2025)

7 October: Residents of asylum hotels provided by Clearsprings Ready Homes (CRH) send videos to the BBC showing the terrible conditions and inedible food served, as CRH accumulate £187 million in profits since being awarded Home Office contracts in 2019. (BBC, 7 October 2025)

Migrants are forced to live in grim conditions while corporate profiteers make millions.

The far‑right is exploiting anger against costs – but it’s companies like Clearsprings who are responsible and who benefit, not people who come here seeking safety.https://t.co/gQ0q2vQ0gl

— Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants (@JCWI_UK) October 8, 2025

8 October: Detainees in 127bis detention centre in Steenokkerzeel, Belgium, reportedly go on hunger strike after Mahmoud Ezzat Farag Allah, a 26-year-old Palestinian refugee from Gaza, ends his life after being held for three months and refused medication despite his fragile psychological state. (Brussels Times, 8 October 2025)

9 October: Italy’s Council of State rules that migrants held in the country’s repatriation centres have a right to adequate levels of psychological and physical health care, to limit self-harm and suicide risks, holding unlawful parts of a government decree of March 2024. (InfoMigrants, 9 October 2025)

13 October: An inquest into the death of Leonard Farruku, a 27-year-old Albanian asylum seeker who took his own life in December 2023 on the Bibby Stockholm, finds that the Home Office failed to consider information about his fragile mental health in placing him on the barge, despite urgent requests from the local authority, and failed to warn barge staff of his vulnerable state. (Bhatt Murphy, 13 October 2025; BBC News, 13 October 2025)

Deportations

1 October: Speaking to the BBC, the prime minister says he is unhappy with the way UK courts interpret international human rights laws in deportation decisions, in particular Articles 3 and 8 of the ECHR, which ban torture and protect the right to private and family life, whose application needs reviewing. (EIN, 1 October 2025)

9 October: Nine people are removed to France under the ‘one in, one out’ agreement with France, taking the total number returned under the deal to 26, with 18 accepted in return. (BBC News, 9 October 2025) 

9 October: Legal experts and rights activists in Bulgaria say that refused asylum seekers from Syria are being coerced into an EU-funded ‘voluntary return’ programme, with Frontex officials visiting detainees up to four times to threaten them with forcible deportation if they refuse to sign. (Balkan Insight, 9 October 2025)

Crimes of solidarity

12 October: A court in the Sicilian city of Trapani, Italy, rules to suspend the administrative detention of SAR NGO Mediterranea Saving Humans’ vessel Mediterranea, held in the port since 23 August for failure to obey instructions to take rescued migrants north to Genoa instead of Trapani, the nearest port. (InfoMigrants, 12 October 2025)

HUMAN RIGHTS AND DISCRIMINATION 

14 October: The Council of Europe Human Rights Commissioner writes to the chairs of parliamentary committees on human rights, women and equalities, expressing concern at the climate for trans people in the UK and asking parliament to ensure, given the failure of the Supreme Court to engage with human rights in its judgment on single-sex facilities, that trans people are protected from discrimination. (Council of Europe, 14 October 2025)

EDUCATION

Although we do not cover student protests for Palestine, we do track university administrative measures that deny the right to protest and authorise the use of force, or silence pro-Palestinian voices and display anti-Palestinian bias.

30 September: A Greater Manchester school apologises to parents after pupils share a video in which a member of staff says, ‘We are not saying that the England flag is an inherently racist symbol. However, unfortunately for some people it has been viewed to be that.’ The school apologises for the presentation not being ‘balanced and impartial’. (MEN, 30 September 2025)

2 October: The Royal Society decides not to expel Elon Musk as a member after his speech at the ‘Unite the Kingdom’ rally, saying it is not its role ‘to police the personal political opinions of individual fellows’. (THE, 2 October 2025)

2 October: A report from Scholars at Risk shows that repression of academic freedom is spreading to ‘democracies’, with the US the most striking case but with international programmes challenged by right-wing politicians in the Netherlands and by government interference in Hungary. (Science/Business, 2 October 2025)

3 October: Emma Stokes, vice-president for global engagement at Trinity College Dublin, calls for ‘sustainable meaningful funding for students fleeing conflicts’, as 80 Gazan students begin courses at Irish universities this academic year. (THE, 3 October 2025)

3 October: School leaders report increases of racist abuse, ‘notably different’ trends such as parents ‘saying they don’t want their children visiting mosques’ and racial slurs in the playground, voicing concern that teachers risk ‘going viral’ for speaking up about racism. (TES, 3 October 2025)

3 October: Former children’s commissioner and executive chair of the Centre for Young Lives, Baroness Anne Longfield, says that ‘Black children can feel unsafe and over-policed at school’ and that ‘zero-tolerance behaviour policies often disproportionately punish Black and mixed-race students’. She calls on education leaders to commit to ‘embedding a culture of anti-racism into the heart of their schools’. (TES, 3 October 2025)

8 October: The University and College Union says students engaged in peaceful protests against genocide ‘should be supported… not surveilled’ after emails obtained by the Guardian and Liberty Investigates reveal that UK Universities reassured arms companies they would monitor students’ chat groups and social media accounts when firms raised concerns about campus protests. (Guardian, 8 October 2025)

9 October: At a meeting hosted by the private Christian Hillsdale College in Michigan, US, Reform UK leader Nigel Farage claims that teachers are ‘poisoning our kids’ by telling them that Black children are victims and white children oppressors and that the ‘Marxist left’ is ‘in control of our education system’. (Guardian, 9 October 2025)

10 October: On a BBC Political Thinking podcast, Arif Ahmed of the Office for Students says that universities could face sanctions if pro-Palestinian protests descend into harassment and discrimination against Jewish students. (BBC News, 10 October 2025)

HOUSING| POVERTY| WELFARE 

8 October: A record 1,611 people died while homeless across the UK in 2024, a 9 percent increase on the previous year, according to the ‘Dying Homeless’ project of the Museum of Homelessness. Since its inception in 2017, the project has recorded 8,523 deaths among people experiencing homelessness. (LocalGov, 8 October 2025)

UK deaths of 1,611 homeless people in 2024 is record high https://t.co/qeqSv2wEPN

— BBC News (UK) (@BBCNews) October 8, 2025

HEALTH AND SOCIAL CARE 

2 October: It is reported that the local government and social care ombudsman has exposed a major safeguarding failure at the London Borough of Haringey, finding that the council had over 1,100 unread emails in its social work inbox, including over 500 police welfare reports, highlighting a systemic backlog leaving residents at serious risk. (LocalGov, 2 October 2025)

6 October: The Royal College of Nursing says the NHS and social care will ‘cease to function’ if the government’s proposed rule changes, including restrictions on foreign health and care workers and making routes to settlement lengthy and precarious, are implemented. It is ‘pandering of the worst kind’, it says. (Guardian, 6 October 2025)

EMPLOYMENT| EXPLOITATION| INDUSTRIAL ACTION

3 October: Port workers in Livorno, Italy, strike for Palestine, refusing to unload and reload an Israeli-owned container ship, in the latest of a series of actions blocking suspected weapons transport in ports across the country, including Genoa, Trieste, Ravenna, Salerno and Taranto. (Guardian, 3 October 2025) 

CULTURE| MEDIA| SPORT

While we cannot cover all incidents of racist abuse on sportspersons or their responses, we provide a summary of the most important incidents. For more information follow Kick it Out.

30 September: Journalist Owen Jones accuses Labour of ‘Trumpian behaviour’ after being kicked out of the party’s conference in Liverpool. He and Novara Media journalists had their press passes revoked after complaints about their conduct, which he claims stem from questioning MPs over Britain’s role in Israel’s actions. The NUJ condemns the decision as a threat to press freedom, saying Labour’s actions risk creating the impression of a government evading scrutiny. (Morning Star, 30 September 2025; NUJ, 1 October 2025)

Owen Jones kicked out of Labour conference https://t.co/HGyOCEULCm

— Morning Star (@M_Star_Online) September 30, 2025

 2 October: Adnan Hussain, the independent MP for Blackburn, says that hours after posting a pixellated picture of his newborn daughter, racist, sexist and ‘utterly depraved’ posts were circulating on social media, with some posts questioning Hussain’s Britishness and saying that his daughter should be deported alongside him to their ‘ancestral homeland’. (Guardian, 2 October 2025) 

7 October: MPs and Jewish leaders urge Manchester Academy to cancel punk-rap duo Bob Vylan’s 5 November concert, citing safety concerns after last week’s synagogue attack in Manchester. The Jewish Representative Council of Greater Manchester, backed by 10 MPs, says it is ‘deeply concerned’ the venue is hosting a band whose past chants of ‘Death to the IDF’ risk inciting hate, arguing that freedom of expression must not come at the expense of community safety. (Guardian, 7 October 2025)

13 October: The Centre for Countering Digital Hate warns that AI tools are being exploited by racist video creators to visualise and spread extremist narratives, with the far Right, including Tommy Robinson, seizing on AI-generated video clips of reimagined European cities changed by migration to promote racist views, including the great replacement theory. (AFP, 13 October 2025)

13 October: Former England rugby player Luther Burrell says that exposing racism in the sport ended his career, after he revealed in 2022 that racist jokes and messages were ‘rife’ in rugby union. An RFU investigation later supported his claims, prompting reforms to improve inclusion and diversity across the game. (BBC Sport, 13 October 2025) 

RACIAL VIOLENCE AND HARASSMENT

For details of court judgements on racially motivated and other hate crimes, see also POLICING | PRISONS | CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM.

 3 October: In Northern Ireland, a man is charged with seven counts of criminal damage and one count of stirring up hatred after racially motivated graffiti are found at several locations in Lisburn, including the threat, ‘Kill All Muslims’. (BBC News, 3 October 2025; Belfast Media Group, 6 October 2025)

4 October: The Abdullah Quilliam mosque in Liverpool says that following classes at the mosque, a group of young Muslim girls were targeted in an Islamophobic attack, with one woman armed with scissors attempting to harm young girls as they walked home. (Instagram, 4 October 2025)

4 October: Police treat as arson with intent to endanger life an attack on a mosque in Peacehaven, East Sussex, which is set on fire with people inside, leading to damage to the front entrance of the building and a vehicle. The home secretary calls the attack ‘deeply concerning’ on X. It emerges that the mosque had previously been subject to a months-long campaign of intimidation which spilled over into racist bullying of brown and Black schoolchildren at nearby schools. (BBC News, 5 October 2025; X [Taj Ali], 6 October 2025)

5 October: A man is arrested on suspicion of religiously aggravated criminal damage after graffiti is sprayed on the Imam Hussein Foundation Centre, a mosque in Watford. (BBC News, 5 October 2025)

9 October: Oldham Bangladeshi Society reports that in the latest racial incident inflicted on an Asian family in St Mary’s, Oldham, the words ‘P*kis Out’ were sprayed on their front door. (Instagram, 9 October 2025)

9 October: Home Office statistics show a rise in hate crimes in the year ending March 2025, with 115,990 hate crimes recorded by police, a rise of 2 percent from the previous year. Race hate crimes increased by 6 percent, and religious hate crimes by 3 percent. Anti-Muslim religious hate crimes rose by 19 percent following the Southport murders and far-right riots of August 2024. (UK government, 9 October 2025)

10 October: In Worcester, police investigate a racially motivated attack and threats to kill after a one-year-old boy and his father are sprayed with an unknown substance. A 77-year-old woman is arrested. (Worcester News, 10 October 2025; BBC News, 10 October 2025)

11 October: After two members of the public are injured with a weapon near Bradford College, a man of no fixed abode is arrested and charged with racially aggravated offences. (BBC News, 11 October 2025; Metro, 9 October 2025)

13 October: The National Council of Voluntary Organisations is amongst charities warning of  growing racial abuse, intimidation and threats of violence towards their staff and beneficiaries, and says that a trend where extensive security measures are put in place to protect staff and property are becoming the ‘new normal’. (Guardian, 13 October 2025)

14 October: Care workers are increasingly facing racist abuse and have been advised to travel in racially mixed groups and carry panic alarms following a surge in reports of verbal abuse and spitting, says the National Care Association, representing 5,000 care providers. (Guardian, 14 October 2025)

This calendar is researched by IRR staff and compiled by Sophie Chauhan, with the assistance of Graeme Atkinson, Sam Berkson, Margaret McAdam and Louis Ordish. Thanks also to ECRE, the Never Again Association, Research Against Global Authoritarianism and Stopwatch, whose regular updates on asylum, migration, far Right, racial violence, employment and policing issues are an invaluable source of information. Find these stories and all others since 2014 on our searchable database, the Register of Racism and Resistance.