Britain's interior minister Shabana Mahmood on October 12 announced a public inquiry into the deaths of two Jewish men who died during an attack at a Manchester synagogue in October 2025, Reuters reports. Adrian Daulby, 53, and Melvin Cravitz, 66, were killed during the attack at the Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation Synagogue during Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar.
Jihad Al-Shamie, a 35-year-old British citizen of Syrian descent, drove into the synagogue's perimeter gates before attacking worshippers with a knife while wearing a fake suicide belt, telling police he was acting for Islamic State before officers shot him dead. Cravitz died from multiple knife wounds, while Daulby was killed by a bullet fired by armed police officers deployed to the scene, according to the European Jewish Congress.
Mahmood told lawmakers that a public inquiry 'will ensure that all evidence can be heard, including any sensitive national security material that could not otherwise be fully heard,' Reuters reports. In September 2026, Alexia Durran, Chief Coroner of England and Wales, had written to the Home Secretary recommending that the inquests into the two deaths be converted into a public inquiry.
'Faced with the threat posed to our Jewish community, we have increased funding to the police by an additional £250 million to boost police presence in key Jewish areas and tackle antisemitism on our streets,' Mahmood said, as quoted by the European Jewish Congress. 'But I know we cannot simply build higher walls around our Jewish community and expect them to live in fear. So we must root out the evil of antisemitism wherever it lurks in society.'
Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp told MPs it is 'more important than ever that we double our efforts to fight antisemitism and Islamist extremism.' The conversion of the inquests into a full public inquiry followed the coroner's September recommendation, allowing sensitive national security material to be heard in full, Reuters reports.
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