The author of an independent review of the government’s £50 million anti-extremism Prevent programme has claimed the “lack of progress” in implementing some of the reforms he recommended is increasing the risk of a terrorist attack – especially in the wake of October 7.
The report published a year ago by Sir William Shawcross said Prevent was failing to tackle support networks for Hamas. It also said that even though Islamists posed a greater threat, the programme was focused disproportionately on right-wing extremists because officials feared being accused of Islamophobia.
But Shawcross told the JC that although there had been improvements, “I am extremely concerned at the lack of progress on some of my key recommendations. This lack of progress places the public in greater danger.”
Events since last year’s Hamas atrocities such as the huge anti-Israel protests and the surge in antisemitic attacks had deepened his concerns. He said: “In my report, which came well before October 7, I outlined how the Hamas support network had to be tackled and dismantled in this country – some of what we’ve seen on the marches has only reinforced that point.”
Sir William, whose comments are likely to trigger a furious political row, was speaking after Home Secretary James Cleverly and Security Minister Tom Tugendhat issued a written “update” on implementing his report.
The update says that the government has made “significant progress” to deliver a “stronger, more transparent and proportionate approach to stopping people from being radicalised into terrorism” and accepted all his 34 recommendations.
Tugendhat told the JC that one of the review’s “most important conclusions” was that Prevent “needs to better understand and tackle antisemitism – especially when it comes to those supporting terrorist movements who explicitly target Jewish communities.
“I’m pleased we’ve made good progress on this. Over the past year, Prevent has stepped up its focus on extremist groups where vile antisemitism is a feature of their hateful messages. We’ve recruited specialist intervention providers to better address the prevalence of antisemitism in Prevent referrals.
“New training has been rolled out to ensure Prevent practitioners and civil society organisations can spot and counter dangerous antisemitic ideologies pursued by extremist organisations. And we’re putting new mechanisms in place to continue improving our understanding of the role antisemitism plays in radicalising beliefs.”
The war that started on October 7 “only demonstrates how vital this work is and we will continue to adapt our approach to keep pace with the evolving threat,” Tugendhat said.
Among the most explosive of Shawcross’s original findings was that Prevent focused too heavily on relatively minor threats from the far right instead of addressing more urgent challenges from supporters of Hamas and Hezbollah, because officials feared being accused of racism or Islamophobia.
He said the latest figures, covering the year to the end of March 2023, suggested this was still a problem: “We need to address the disparity in Prevent referrals for Islamist extremism – at just 11 per cent compared with MI5’s 75 per cent for its terrorist caseload.”
Shawcross criticised the failure to issue promised “guidance to tackle the creeping blasphemy law by the back door which we’ve seen in our schools”, citing the incident in which an autistic boy was accused of committing a “hate crime” for dropping a copy of the Quran at a school in Wakefield.
He also pointed out there was no sign of legislation to redefine Prevent so that it targeted people deemed to be at risk of supporting terrorism as well as likely to commit terrorist acts, and to extend Prevent to the UK Border Force – which currently is not covered by it.
Tugendhat said that the government was still working on the recommendations that had not been fully implemented, saying they would be in the coming weeks.
As for the continuing low level of Prevent referrals for Islamism, he said that the 2022-3 figures only applied to a period of six weeks after the review was published, which was not enough time to expect a turnaround. But they showed “we were absolutely right to get William in, we were absolutely right to listen to his advice, and we are are absolutely right to make sure we deliver on this... the facts demonstrate that the most lethal threat in the last 20 years has come from extreme Islamist ideology”.
He said he regretted there had as yet been no legislation, but said he was doing all he could to get introduced. But he could not promise it would pass before the election, because “unfortunately it’s not me who controls the electoral timetable”.
Asked about Shawcross’s claim that not enough had been done to dismantle support networks for Hamas, Tugendhat said police had made more 600 than arrests for offences related to the October 7 attacks, including 30 under the Terrorism Acts. It was “completely illegal” to show support for Hamas in any way, he said.
