Record numbers of children are being reported to the Government’s anti-extremism services for expressing ‘far right’ ideology.
More than 2,100 under-15s were referred to Prevent in 2022/23 over fears they were being groomed by extremists or at risk of radicalisation.
Of them, 462 expressed ‘extreme right wing’ ideologies compared with 182 ‘Islamist’ referrals. Eighty-eight were flagged over their interest in school massacres, with six suspected ‘incels’ also on the list.
Prevent, ran by the Home Office, aims to stop terror attacks on British streets. Officials work with local authorities and community organisations to ‘support and protect vulnerable people’.
But the flagship £49million-a-year scheme has faced huge criticism over its failures in spotting Islamist terror sympathisers, including those with links to notorious hate preacher Anjem Choudary.
Critics, including ex-Home Secretary Suella Braverman, accused it of pandering to political correctness and trying not to appear to be Islamophobic.
Sir William Shawcross, who conducted an independent review into the scheme, said the British public is ‘at risk’ because Prevent has strayed from ‘its core mission’ of countering all ideologies that can lead to terrorism.
Sir William wrote: ‘It is correct for Prevent to be increasingly concerned about the growing threat from the Extreme Right. But the facts clearly demonstrate that the most lethal threat in the last 20 years has come from Islamism, and this threat continues.’
Months later, it emerged that popular British sitcoms were marked as ‘key texts’ for white nationalists/supremacists by the counter-terror programme.
Prevent singled out comedies Yes Minister and The Thick Of It, the 1955 epic war film The Dam Busters, and even The Complete Works Of William Shakespeare as possible red flags of extremism.
Prevent warned that TV comedies such as Yes Minister, featuring Nigel Hawthorne, left, Paul Eddington, centre, and Derek Fowlds, right, had become required texts for right wing extremists
Last year’s toll of Prevent’s ‘extreme right wing’ referrals (1,310) was up 35.5 per cent on 2016/17. The scheme was introduced following the 2015 Counter-Terrorism and Security Act.
Over the same period, the amount under the Islamist umbrella has plunged by 81 per cent, from 3,706 to 701 today.
The trend is even starker among under-15s.
Officials describe Extreme Right-Wing Terrorism (ERWT) as using violence to further aims. Such ideologies can be broadly characterised as ‘Cultural Nationalism, White Nationalism and White Supremacism’, the Home Office says.
Islamist terrorism, meanwhile, relates to ‘the threat or use of violence as a means to establish a strict interpretation of an Islamic society’.
A Government document says that the UK’s biggest Islamist terrorist threat ‘comes overwhelmingly from those inspired by, but not necessarily affiliated with, ISIS and Al Qaeda.
It adds: ‘Islamist should not be interpreted as a reference to individuals who follow the religion of Islam.’
Potential threats from left wing organisations are also included in the annual Prevent figures, although an exact toll is not provided as counter-terror chiefs view the threat as slim.
The Home Office says such groups – said to pose a ‘low’ terror threat – ‘seek to use violence to advance their cause in seeking to overthrow the State in all its forms’.
In total, 6,817 people were flagged to Prevent in England and Wales during 2022/23, with the 15-20 age group making up the bulk of referrals.
Of the 2,119 under 15s sucked into the programme, 241 were adopted as a Channel case.
Many of the referrals and reports came from schools where children were identified as being at risk of radicalisation as a result of their extremist views, often associated with expressing hate speech involving racism, homophobia or anti-Semitic abuse.
Thomas Mair, 57, was inspired by white supremacism to murder MP Jo Cox ahead of the 2016 Brexit referendum claiming ‘Britain first, this is for Britain’
Jo Cox, pictured was shot and stabbed by Mair on her way to a constituency surgery, meeting local residents of Bately and Spen
Expressing sympathy or admiration for the likes of Adolf Hitler or praising extremists would be enough to risk being flagged to Prevent if overheard by a teacher, social worker or even work colleague.
Of the Channel cases, 115 were far right while 42 were Islamist. The remaining cases were split among a range of different groups including nine who fantasised about school massacres and one incel.
However, a Prevent intervention is no guarantee an individual will be deradicalised.
Experts demanded Prevent be overhauled after Tory MP Sir David Amess was killed by the Islamic State fanatic during a constituency surgery in October 2021.
It emerged that Ali Harbi Ali, a British national of Somali heritage who stabbed the veteran MP 21 times, was previously referred to Prevent by a teacher who was concerned about his extremist views.
During his trial, in which he was handed a whole life sentence, he boasted how he was able to deceive police and anti-radicalisation workers.
The court heard Ali was radicalised watching sermons of hate preacher Anjem Choudary, who was this week jailed for life for running a banned terrorist organisation. Choudary had the temerity to suggest it was Britain that was to blame for radicalising the killer.
As well as being accused of not focusing enough on prime Islamist threats, Prevent last month faced criticism over its heavy-handed approach towards ‘views that are held by the majority of people in Britain’.
Last month the Mail revealed a 12-year-old schoolboy was investigated by counter-extremism officers after he declared there ‘are only two genders’.
Officers visited his mother, reeling off a string of allegations to illustrate the Jewish boy was at risk of radicalisation.
Sir David Amess, pictured, was murdered in October 2021 by a follower of jailed hate preacher Anjem Choudary
Ali Harbi Ali, pictured, was handed a whole life tariff by the Old Bailey for murdering the veteran Tory MP.
The mother said the school, who referred him to Prevent, and officers were guilty of double standards, claiming anti-Semitic incidents at the school in Northumbria were not dealt with in the same way.
Prevent is the first tier in the Government’s anti radicalisation strategy.
According to Home Office guidance, the scheme ‘focuses on reducing the influence of susceptible audiences, as well as reducing the availability of, and access to, terrorist content’.
After an initial discussion with police, a case can be diverted to Channel process – a voluntary programme designed to support people deemed terrorist threats. People who accept help from Channel can get assistance through mentoring, religious guidance, education and even help with housing and hobbies in a bid to lead them away from trouble.
If people at risk of radicalisation refuse help or are at continued risk of radicalisation, they will be continually monitored by police.
In the wake of Sir William’s sweeping review, Rishi Sunak ‘s government announced reforms to ‘ensure rigorous consistent and proportionate decision making on all referrals to the programme’.
The new guidelines will order Prevent to intervene in cases of people when they ‘present a counter-terrorism risk’.
The issue of far-right terrorism in the UK came to prominence in 2016 following the murder of Labour MP Jo Cox. Thomas Mair, 57, shot and stabbed her in an assault during the EU referendum campaign.
Mair, who was jailed for life, was said to have been inspired by white supremacism and while attacking her in Birstall, West Yorkshire, said ‘Britain first, this is for Britain’.
After the attack when police searched his home and studied his on-line activities it emerged he was obsessed with the Nazis, notions of white supremacy and apartheid-era South Africa.
Nigel Bromage, founder of Exit Hate Trust, a charity which helps people leave far-right organisations, said: ‘Today, more and more young people are vulnerable to extremist influence, because extremists know how active they are online and extremist recruiters spend hours talking to them, offering spaces for people to talk, instead of shutting young people down.
‘What we as a society need to do is have difficult conversations in the community, so young people do not have to engage with extremists online, that’s why Exit is here and people can get support from Prevent.’
