Dame Maureen Lipman has revealed she was compelled to employ a personal bodyguard because of what she describes as the government’s failure to address antisemitism.
The Jewish performer revealed that she took the drastic measure after pro-Palestinian campaigners in Aberdeen attempted to have her current stage production cancelled.
Writing in The Spectator, Dame Maureen stated: “I am forced by government inaction on antisemitism to hire security for the tour.”
She described how her security guard Mark “protects me and even brings me a flat white and a flapjack when I can’t exit via the stage door”.
The image shared by the Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign
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SCOTTISH PALESTINE SOLIDARITY CAMPAIGN
The 80-year-old actress labelled those campaigning against her performance of Allegra at His Majesty’s Theatre in Aberdeen as “bigots” who had circulated a doctored version of the show’s promotional poster.
The Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign shared the altered image on social media as part of their effort to cancel Dame Maureen’s performance, claiming she had a “long record of harmful statements about Muslims, Palestinians and Palestinian rights”.
The modified poster showed the actress with devil horns and a pitchfork added to her likeness.
Dame Maureen dismissed the imagery as “that dopey old trope again” in her Spectator piece.
Dame Maureen Lipman has been forced to hire security to protect her from antisemitism
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GETTY
The Campaign Against Antisemitism condemned the depiction as a “longstanding antisemitic trope”.
Dame Maureen’s husband, David, explained the historical context, noting that the Hebrew word for horns, keren, also translates as radiance or halo, and that medieval artists had adopted this mistranslation into their portrayals of Jewish people.
Timothy Lovat, chairman of the Jewish Council of Scotland, lodged a formal complaint with police regarding the image.
Following a meeting with Police Scotland Chief Constable Jo Farrell last week, he was informed that the content did not reach the threshold required for a hate crime prosecution.
Dame Maureen Lipman stars in the title role of Allegra
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ALLEGRA/INSTAGRAM
Instead, officers classified it as a non-crime hate incident, meaning they determined it fell short of criminal behaviour whilst keeping details on record.
“I don’t understand what a non-crime hate incident is. If it is a hate incident, then in my humble opinion it should be a crime,” Mr Lovat told the Scottish Daily Mail.
The decision came despite Scotland’s hate crime legislation, which created offences for “stirring up hatred” through the communication of threatening or abusive material intended to incite hatred against particular groups.
Nearly 80 members of the House of Lords wrote to Sir Keir Starmer last month, arguing that permitting the “demonisation” of Israel had fostered conditions conducive to antisemitism across Britain.
The peers described the frequency of attacks on Jewish people in the UK as a “profound failure” by the state.
The Prime Minister faces mounting pressure to confront antisemitism following multiple anti-Jewish incidents in north London in recent months.
A Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government spokesman responded: “The horrific rise of antisemitism and anti-Jewish hatred in Britain and across the world is intolerable, and we will not rest until Britain is a place where every Jewish person can live openly, safely and proudly.”
The government highlighted its record £58 million investment in protective security funding for Jewish communities, pledging to address root causes across society.