"The writing was clearly on the wall for some time" says senior adviser to Tory PMs
A senior advisor to Tory Prime Ministers has given a damning verdict on the failings of successive administrations to address far-right extremism, leaving the UK wide open to violence.
Former counter-extremism commissioner Dame Sara Khan slammed the lack of action by previous governments which ignored red flags, while senior Tories in a series of administrations stoked the fire through culture wars.
Recent administrations failed to act on repeated advice that gaps in the law were being exploited by far-right extremists to spread violence on social media, Rishi Sunak’s former independent adviser for social cohesion and resilience said.
Speaking to The Guardian’s Daniel Boffey, Dame Khan, who also advised Therese May and Boris Johnson, said “the writing was clearly on the wall for some time” and that successive reports had shown that extremist and cohesion threats were worsening.
“Previous governments have astonishingly failed to address these trends, and they’ve taken instead, in my view, approaches that have actually been counterproductive and actually just defy any logical rationale,” said Khan.
Furthermore, political instability in recent times, as the country saw five different Prime Ministers in seven years, had weakened the Government’s response to growing extremism, Khan argued.
She wrote a report in 2021 with Met commissioner Sir Mark Rowley that called for a change in the law on extremism. However Khan said that trends in her reports over previous years noting the country’s lack of preparation for the rise of extremism went unaddressed.
Instead, Khan said the approaches have been, “counterproductive and actually just defy any logical rationale”. She also went on to blast the use of inflammatory language by politicians that legitimise racist views to the public.
“Political leadership is really important and how our politicians behave is really, really critical, because I’ve seen, and I’m sure other people have seen, politicians who have actually, indirectly or directly undermined social cohesion because they’ve used inflammatory language.”
It comes after days of racist rioting across UK towns and cities fuelled by the rapid spread of misinformation online promoting anti-immigration and Islamophobic rhetoric.
A Conservative spokesperson said to The Guardian: “Rishi Sunak as prime minister made it clear that we must stand up to extremism in all its forms. The police must take a zero-tolerance approach to extremist tactics, and we set out reforms to how governments deal with extremists, redoubled our support for the Prevent programme and demanded that universities stopped extremist activity on campus.”
Hannah Davenport is news reporter at Left Foot Forward
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