Middle East Eye: What the Knowsley riot tells us about Suella Braverman and the Shawcross report

In the wake of the Knowsley riot, Ella Cockbain and Peter Oborne argue that the Shawcross review of Prevent, supported by Suella Braverman, has given permission to the far right and they must bear some responsibility. “Last Wednesday, in the House of Commons, Home Secretary Suella Braverman welcomed the Shawcross review of Prevent, including its judgement that the programme had laid too much emphasis on the danger presented by extreme right ideology. “While obscuring the Islamist threat,” the home secretary told MPs, “Prevent has defined the extreme right-wing too broadly, encompassing the respectable right and centre-right.” Uncomfortably for Braverman, two days later an eruption of right-wing violent extremism broke out in an attack on a hotel housing asylum-seekers in Knowsley, Merseyside. A police van was set ablaze, fireworks were launched at officers and vile accusations were chanted about the hotel’s residents as lawful protest descended into mob violence. There’s no question that the far right played a major role in stirring up the terrible events in Knowsley. Big Tech must also answer for its culpability in enabling fascism: calls to action circulated on social media, including a YouTube video from the neo-Nazi group Patriotic Alternative. But – and this should trouble the home secretary – there is plenty of evidence that the “respectable right and centre-right” bears a heavy share of responsibility. To understand why, let’s examine the claims underpinning the mob attacks.” Read more: What the Knowsley riot tells us about Suella Braverman and the Shawcross report | Middle East Eye Related resources