A record number of anti-Semitic incidents reported in the UK last year has led to calls from rabbis and MPs for the government to do more to protect Jewish buildings.

Hate attacks doubled to exceed 1,000 in a single year for the first time in 2014, with Barnet and Camden the worst-affected areas in London.

Last week the Community Security Trust (CST) – a charity that monitors anti-Semitism and provides security for the Jewish community in Britain – reported that it had recorded 1,168 anti-Semitic incidents across the country in 2014, more than double the 535 recorded in 2013 and the highest annual total CST has ever noted.

Incidents increased by 137 per cent in Greater London and by 79 per cent in Greater Manchester.

A third of the incidents in Greater London (194) were recorded in Barnet while neighbouring Camden saw the next highest figure (69).

The most common single type of incident involved verbal abuse randomly directed at visibly Jewish people in public.

Source: Ham&High