Education secretary Gavin Williamson has urged British university vice-chancellors to adopt the international definition of anti-Semitism. He warned them that he would act if ‘the overwhelming majority’ of universities had not adopted the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism by the end of the year; they could even have ‘funding streams’ suspended. He said it was disturbing that a recent survey by the Union of Jewish Students showed only 29 out of 133 universities had adopted the IHRA definition, and 80 said they had no current plans to do so. Mr Williamson said, ‘The repugnant belief that anti-Semitism is somehow a less serious, or more acceptable, form of racism has taken insidious hold in some parts of British society. I am quite clear that universities must play their part in rooting out this attitude and demonstrating that anti-Semitism is abhorrent.’