A LOCAL authority looks set to affirm its opposition to anti-Semitism, just days after it was revealed the number of anti-Jewish incidents logged in the United Kingdom hit record levels last year.

The Community Security Trust, which advises the UK’s estimated 280,000 Jews on security matters, said there had been 1,805 incidents in 2019, a rise of seven per cent and the fourth consecutive year the figure had reached a new high.

To help counter increasing hate crime through awareness, North Yorkshire County Council’s leader has asked its leading members to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of anti-Semitism.

Councillor Carl Les’ motion to the authority’s executive states: “North Yorkshire remains one of the safest places to live in the United Kingdom. However, we must be ever vigilant to maintain that position.

“Hate crime is on the rise and we must do whatever we can to counter this, as part of the fundamental protected characteristics within equalities legislation.”

It has been reported that 136 of England’s 343 councils have adopted the definition to date. It is understood that the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, Rt Hon Robert Jenrick MP, is keen that ensure that there is a more widespread adoption of the definition by local authorities.