Ex-communities minister Baroness Warsi has attacked the Government’s proposed reform of Prevent, warning Whitehall risks creating a ‘hierarchy of extremism’ and an ‘unnecessary culture war’.
In a hard-hitting interview with The MJ, Britain’s first female Muslim Cabinet minister said she was disappointed by William Shawcross’ review of Prevent, the Government’s major counter-extremism strategy.
Home secretary Suella Braverman last week ‘wholeheartedly’ accepted all 34 proposals to reform Prevent made by Mr Shawcross.
The Home Office added that ‘Islamist terrorism remains the primary terrorist threat to the UK’ despite referrals because of extreme right-wing radicalisation (20%) being higher than Islamist referrals (16%) from April 2021 to March 2022.
Baroness Warsi urged the Home Office and Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities to think again before implementing Mr Shawcross’ controversial recommendations.
Her intervention comes days after far-right groups staged violent protests against the Home Office’s use of a Knowsley hotel for asylum seekers.
She said: ‘They [the recommendations] seek to create a hierarchy of extremism, with a distorted focus on Islamist extremism above all others, particularly when we know far-right extremism has been on the rise.
'This threatens to undermine the good work of the police, security services and local authorities in tackling the kind of far-right activity we saw in Knowsley just two days after the Shawcross review.’
Baroness Warsi called for a wider-ranging assessment of Prevent ‘based on evidence and with an improved focus on engaging with all communities’.
She added: ‘My concern is that the Home Office and other Government departments have couched this in the context of a damaging and unnecessary culture war, leaving us all less safe.’
Prevent practitioners have said far-right risks identified by the counter-extremism programme have risen ‘significantly and worryingly’ in recent years.
One local Prevent practitioner warned the Shawcross proposals ‘risk unpicking the excellent work of many councils and community-level partners’.