Nadhim Zahawi, the education secretary, said he was worried by allegations of “systemic antisemitism” within the National Union of Students, telling MPs that the government may sever links with the organisation unless it reforms.
Zahawi’s intervention follows concerns raised by the Union of Jewish Students, including a social media posts by the NUS’s incoming president, Shaima Dallali, that invoked an historic assault on Jews in the Middle East.
Speaking to parliament’s education committee, Zahawi said: “I am deeply concerned about the NUS – it feels to me that there is systemic antisemitism, because this is not the first time, it’s the second time I think, they have elected a leader who has got a history of antisemitic comments and statements, so that does concern me.”
Dallali has apologised for the social media comments, telling the Guardian in an interview: “I’m not the same person I was. I have developed my political language to talk about Palestine and Israel. I stand by that apology.”
The NUS has also said it will hold an independent investigation into allegations of antisemitism, and work with the Union of Jewish Students to resolve its concerns.
But Zahawi said it was “not acceptable, in my view, that anyone in a leadership position in that organisation holds these views or propagates them in any way.
“I think they need to rebuild, regain the trust of Jewish students because at the moment that trust has collapsed completely and rightly so, in my view. I think there’s a lot of work the NUS needs to do to get itself back into – I wouldn’t even say a good place – a proper, functioning representative organisation.”
Zahawi told the committee that his department was looking to respond, telling MPs that “no options are off the table, including our relationship with the NUS.”
Anna Firth, the Conservative MP for Southend West, also asked why the Department for Education had failed to move forward with Sharia-compliant student financing, as an alternative for student loans for Muslim students, despite a 2014 pledge to do so.
Zahawi said he would investigate the delay. “We’ve got to make sure we deliver,” he said.
Firth said a recent poll had found that 4,000 Muslims had been unable to go into higher education because of the lack of alternative financing.