Counter-Extremism Lobby

Funding for the Prevent programme has plummeted since the pandemic despite Britain’s growing problem with extremism, according to figures that show parts of London and Birmingham have faced the biggest cuts. The amount spent by the Home Office on the government’s counterterrorism strategy fell from £41 million in 2021-22 to £25 million this financial year, a 39 per cent drop. Read more on The Times. Related… Read our Response to the Home Affairs Select Committee report on New Forms of Extremism

The Prevent strategy represents one of the UK’s core branches of counter-terrorism with £36 million in annual expenditure. Yet after two decades of operation, it remains largely unclear how these funds are being spent and whether it delivers value for money. When the TaxPayers’ Alliance last examined Prevent in 2009, detailed funding breakdowns and recipient information were available through freedom of information (FOI) requests to local authorities, enabling proper scrutiny of public expenditure. That note revealed that over £12 million was distributed to community groups with insufficient monitoring of how it was spent between 2006-07 and 2008-09, including £850,000 to Muslim Council of Britain affiliates, an organisation that the government subsequently designated as a ‘non-engagement’ group due to previous leaders taking positions that contradict fundamental British values. Now, the Home Office and local authorities routinely refuse FOI requests on national security and commercial sensitivity grounds, preventing taxpayers from understanding where […]

The British government has announced contentious new counter-extremism measures inspired by an extremism definition championed by former Conservative minister Michael Gove and denounced by critics as authoritarian, writes Imran Mulla in the Middle East Eye. Earlier this week considerable fanfare surrounded Communities Secretary Steve Reed announcing a new, non-statutory, definition of anti-Muslim hostility. The definition was widely attacked by Reform and Tory politicians who said it undermines free speech. At the same time it was welcomed by some Muslim groups and criticised by others, who argued it was insufficiently strong. But alongside the definition, Reed also announced the adoption of another definition – which went relatively unnoticed in the national media. The Labour government’s “Protecting What Matters” policy, which the anti-Muslim hostility definition was unveiled as part of, introduces a raft of new measures on community cohesion and integration. Read more on The Middle East Eye.

A new scheme to detect people who are obsessed with violence before they kill should be considered by the government, an official report into the Prevent strategy will say. The report into Prevent has been compiled by David Anderson KC, the interim reviewer of Prevent. Anderson’s report was first ordered by the home secretary, Yvette Cooper, in January after revelations in the Guardian that the Southport attacker had been referred three times to Prevent and rejected each time because officials believed he was not motivated by any clear terrorist ideology. Anderson’s report, expected to be published soon, is the first official report after the Southport case to say a new anti-violence scheme needs to be considered for those thought to pose a threat, but where no terrorist ideology is detected. Any new anti-violence scheme would be in addition to Prevent and possibly even include it as a specific element to […]