Major survey finds 80 per cent of public have witnessed some form of extremism

Home Secretary Sajid Javid will deliver a speech on the newly-published figures today, while Sara Khan, the government’s anti-extremism tsar, will say that “people are scared that violent extremists will incite or carry out an attack”.

In a speech to be delivered on Friday, she will add: “I was shocked to see that more than half of the respondents have witnessed extremism in some way, and that two-fifths of those that had witnessed it said they’d seen it in their local area.

“Communities are also deeply concerned about the impact of groups exploiting local tensions to spread hate and division.

“There are concerns from women, minorities-within-minorities and LGBTQ people that activists, through repeated intimidation and harassment, are shutting down their voices and preventing them from living freely.

“We must guard our right to debate, protest and offend. We should use the word ‘extremism’ with caution. I believe we can, and must, do more.

“There is a real worry about intolerance, abuse and polarisation in public life and debate and the space this gives extremism.

“I believe we need to put forward a positive vision of countering extremism, which is about upholding those democratic values that make this country great.” 

Three quarters of the public respondents found the Government’s current definition of extremism “very unhelpful” or “unhelpful”, while just over half of practitioners found it either “very helpful” or “helpful”.