Yvette Cooper to reject call to widen definition of extremism

Yvette Cooper is expected to reject Government advice to widen the definition of extremism to cover environmentalists, the far left, and men prejudiced against women.

The Home Secretary does not agree with the findings of the “rapid analytical sprint on extremism” she commissioned in August following the riots sparked by the Southport murders.

The report leaked to Policy Exchange suggested the UK’s approach to extremism should be based on concerning behaviours and activity rather than ideologies.

Those include spreading misinformation, influencing racism, and involvement in “an online subculture called the manosphere”, according to the right-leaning think tank.

The Government should expand extremism’s definition to cover environmental extremists, the far left, anarchists, conspiracy theorists, and others, the report also says.

But ministers are set to continue with a focus on Islamist and far-right extremism.

“New approach”

A Home Office spokesperson said: “The counter extremism sprint sought to comprehensively assess the challenge facing our country and lay the foundations for a new approach to tackling extremism – so we can stop people being drawn towards hateful ideologies.

“This includes tackling Islamism and Extreme Right Wing ideologies, which are the most prominent today.

“The findings from the sprint have not been formally agreed by ministers and we are considering a wide range of potential next steps arising from that work.”

The report also recommends reversing a code of practice to limit the number of “non-crime hate incidents” being recorded and floats the idea of creating a new crime of making “harmful communications” online, according to Policy Exchange.

It says claims of “two-tier” policing are an example of a “right-wing extremist narrative”.

Paul Stott and Andrew Gilligan, of Policy Exchange, said in an analysis of the report that the suggested approach risks swamping authorities with new cases.

“Some of the definitions of extremism also threaten free speech, defining aspects of normal and legitimate political debate as extremist,” they added.

After Axel Rudakubana, 18, pleaded guilty last week to murdering three girls at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class, Sir Keir Starmer said it was understandable that the public would look at the crime and “wonder what the word terrorism means”.

The Prime Minister said the teenager represented a new kind of threat, distinct from politically or ideologically motivated terrorism, with “acts of extreme violence perpetrated by loners, misfits, young men in their bedroom, accessing all manner of material online, desperate for notoriety”.

He said that, if needed, the Government would change the law to recognise the “new and dangerous threat” and “review our entire counter-extremist system to make sure we have what we need to defeat it”.

Rudakubana was referred to the Prevent anti-terror programme three times but those referrals were closed due to his apparent lack of a clear ideology.

The Home Secretary has ordered a review of Prevent’s thresholds in response.