Ed Miliband. Photo: Wiki Commons.

Britain’s Labour Party leader Ed Miliband said British Jews for the first time in their lives fear for their children’s futures amid a rise in anti-Semitic attacks in the UK, the Daily Mail reported on Tuesday.

“Some have told me how, for the first time in their lifetime, they are scared for their children’s future in our country,” Miliband said. “Others have expressed a general unease that this rise in anti-Semitism could signal that something has changed – or is changing – in Britain.”

Miliband, who is the son of Jewish refugees, said the idea of “Jewish families fearful of living here in Britain” is no longer unthinkable. Britain has a record of “diversity, tolerance and respect,” he asserted, but in the past few months Britain’s Jewish community has expressed growing concern about the anti-Semitism. He added that their worries had to be taken “very seriously.”

The Community Security Trust, which provides security for the local Jewish community, recorded more than 300 anti-Semitic incidents in July, marking the highest monthly total ever recorded and a 400 percent increase from July 2013.

Jewish Labour MPs Luciana Berger and Louise Ellman were among the victims of anti-Semitic attacks in recent months.

Miliband noted specific anti-Jewish incidents in the UK, saying, “There have been violent assaults, the desecration and damage of Jewish property, anti-Semitic graffiti, hate-mail and online abuse.”

The recent wave of incidents should serve as a “wake-up call for anyone who thought the scourge of anti-Semitism had been defeated,” he said. “We need a zero-tolerance approach to anti-Semitism in the UK and to reaffirm our revulsion to it in all its forms. The Labour Party has always been at the forefront of fighting intolerance. We will continue to be so.”

As The Algemeiner reported last week, Miliband came under severe criticism from the well-known Jewish actress Maureen Lipman over his stance on Israel.