Prime Minister warns UK has ‘cohort of loners who are extreme and need to be factored in’ to security plans
Sir Keir Starmer has warned the UK has a “cohort of loners who are extreme and need to be factored in” as a leaked Home Office review said the UK should deal with extremism by focusing on concerning behaviours and activity rather than ideologies.
The prime minister said his government is “looking carefully where the key challenges” on extremism are, adding it is “very important” to focus on threats “so we can deploy our resource properly”.
“Obviously, that’s now informed with what I said last week in the aftermath of the Southport murders, where we’ve got the additional challenge, I think, of a cohort of loners who are extreme and they need to be factored in,” he said.
“So that’s the focus. In the end, what this comes down to is the safety and security of people across the United Kingdom, that’s my number one focus.”
Politics latest: Assisted dying debate returns to parliament
Sir Keir was speaking after a leaked Home Office extremism review suggested the UK should be focusing on behaviours and activities such as spreading conspiracy theories, misogyny, influencing racism and involvement in “an online subculture called the manosphere”.
The Home Office said Islamism and extreme right-wing ideologies are the “most prominent” issues they are tackling today.
In August, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said the Home Office was conducting a “rapid analytical spring on extremism” to map and monitor trends and inform the government’s approach to extremism.
Last week, Sir Keir Starmer said he would change the law if needed to recognise the new threat posed by extremists without specific ideologies ahead of the jailing of Axel Rudakubana for the stabbing to death of three young girls in Southport last summer.
The 18-year-old had been referred to the anti-terror Prevent programme three times but was not deemed as an extremist under the scheme’s criteria. And, although he pleaded guilty to murder, police were unable to identify Rudakubana’s motive, so his crimes fell outside the definition of terrorism.
Alice da Silva Aguiar, Elsie Dot Stancombe and Bebe King were murdered by Axel Rudakubana
Recommendations could be breach of freedom of speech
The leaked review, obtained ahead of its publication by the Policy Exchange thinktank, recommends reversing the guidance, introduced by then Home Secretary Suella Braverman, for police to reduce dealing with non-hate crime incidents.
It says a new crime, making “harmful communications” online illegal, should be introduced instead. The Conservative government rejected this on freedom of speech grounds.
Policy Exchange’s Paul Stott and Andrew Gilligan said recommendations to class claims of two-tier policing as a “right-wing extremist narrative” will also raise concerns over freedom of speech.
Dangerous individuals could be missed
They said including “behaviours” such as violence against women and girls, spreading misinformation and an interest in gore or extreme violence in the definition of extremism could “swamp already stretched counter-extremism staff and counter-terror police with thousands of new cases”.
This could increase the risk “that genuinely dangerous individuals are missed – it risks addressing symptoms, not causes”, Policy Exchange said.
The review itself admits many who display such behaviours are not extremists.
Read more:
Data suggests ‘new’ kind of threat has been growing for years
Trump and Starmer speak on phone and ‘agree to meet soon’
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Could the Southport killings have been prevented?
Review ‘downplays Islamism’
Following Rudakubana’s guilty plea last week, Sir Keir said the UK “faces a new threat” and the teenager represented a new kind of threat 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 he would change the law, if needed, “to recognise this new and dangerous threat” and said a review of “our entire counter-extremism system” would take place “to make sure we have what we need to defeat it”.
The review also “de-centres and downplays Islamism, by far the greatest threat to national security”, Policy Exchange said.
It said environmental extremism and Hindu extremism should be tackled, as well as “left-wing, anarchist and single issue extremism”.
And Policy Exchange said it has “ignored, even repudiated” recommendations by previous Prevent reviewer William Shawcross that the programme is the wrong place for dealing with the psychologically unstable.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
‘Southport must be a line in the sand,’ the PM says
Government focused on Islamism and right-wing ideologies
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.”
Conservative shadow home secretary Chris Philp said: “By extending the definition of extremism so widely, the government risks losing focus on ideologically motivated terrorists who pose the most risk to life.
“In fact, the Shawcross Review of Prevent made clear that counter-extremism and the counterterrorism strategy should be more focused on terrorist ideology, not less.
“Prevent must be equipped to deal with the terrorist threats in our society, and we should not be dialling back efforts to confront this.
“What the government seems to be planning is a backwards step in the interests of the political correctness we know Keir Starmer loves.
“Starmer wants the thought police to stop anyone telling uncomfortable truths that he and his left-wing lawyer friends don’t like.”
The UK is ready to spend “well over” £100m on a possible deployment of British forces to Ukraine if Donald Trump secures a peace deal with Russia, the defence secretary has said.
John Healey also said Vladimir Putin views Britain as his “number one enemy” because of the country’s support for Ukraine.
The defence secretary’s plan includes the preparation of military personnel to join a multinational force that would be sent to help secure Ukraine’s borders if the US president brokers a ceasefire between Moscow and Kyiv.
He signalled British troops could be ready to deploy as soon as that happened and he said this could include soldiers on the ground.
Some of the anticipated money to prepare for any mission is already being spent.
The defence secretary also warned of a “new era of threat” and said the risk of wider conflict in Europe has not been as great since the end of the Second World War.
Mr Healey used a lecture at Mansion House in London to talk about efforts led by the UK and France to build a “coalition of the willing” of more than 30 nations to form what he called a “Multinational Force Ukraine” over the past six months.
At Mansion House this evening. Pic: PA
This force would help to secure Ukraine’s skies and seas and train its troops if Russia agrees to halt its full-scale war.
“So, as President Trump leads the push for peace here in Europe, we are ready to lead the work to secure it in the long-term,” the defence secretary said.
“For our Armed Forces, I am already reviewing readiness levels and accelerating millions of pounds of funding to prepare for any possible deployment into Ukraine.”
Asked how much money, he said it would be “well over” £100m.
British troops have been instrumental in the training of Ukrainian soliders throughout the conflict at camps like this one in East Anglia.Pic: PA
Mr Healey trumpeted the UK’s support for Ukraine, including a record £4.5bn in assistance this year, and taking over from the United States in co-chairing a wider group of nations that have been sending weapons and money to Kyiv.
“This is why President [Volodymyr] Zelenskyy calls the UK his closest ally,” he said.
“This is why Putin ranks Britain as his number one enemy.”
But he warned that as Russia’s aggression grew in Ukraine and beyond its borders, “Britain and our NATO allies stand more unified, and stronger”.
Read more:
‘Ukraine can’t win war,’ says Trump
UK military to be given powers to shoot down threatening drones
Putin has ‘sent signal to Trump that he’s ready for Ukraine deal’
Vladimir Putin. Pic: Sputnik/Reuters
Giving a stark verdict of the security landscape, Mr Healey said: “This is – undeniably – a new era of threat. The world is more unstable, more uncertain, more dangerous. Not since the end of the Second World War has Europe’s security been at such risk of state-on-state conflict.”
He said this required what he described as “a new era for defence”.
He said: “This is now an age for hard power, strong alliances and sure diplomacy.”
Listen to The World with Richard Engel and Yalda Hakim every Wednesday
The defence secretary said plans for the new era would include increasing defence spending to 5% of GDP by 2035 – though critics have accused the UK and other European allies of playing smoke and mirrors with the target, questioning how much will really be spent on weapons and troops.
“As I look ahead to the rest of this decade, our task, in this new age of hard power is to secure peace in our continent and to forge stronger deterrence and resilience, a New Deal for European security,” said Mr Healey.
Turning to the Middle East, he also announced the UK was sending a two-star military officer to work as the deputy to the US commander, charged with monitoring the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.
Politics
Govt to allow early release of thousands of rapists and violent criminals, Tories claim in sentencing row
The government will allow thousands of rapists, child sex offenders and other violent criminals to be released early from prison, the Conservatives claimed as a row over sentencing law reforms erupted.
Ahead of MPs debating the Sentencing Bill, introduced to tackle the growing prison population, on Tuesday, the Tories accused Labour of favouring criminals over victims and said the government’s approach is a “betrayal of victims”.
But Labour accused the Conservative Party of “rank hypocrisy” over prison overcrowding and the previous government’s early release policies.
The bill will restrict the use of short sentences and instead strengthen community punishments.
It will also include an “earned progression scheme”, which allows convicts who demonstrate good behaviour to be freed earlier, with enhanced supervision in the community followed by an unsupervised period on licence.
There will be a minimum release point of 33% for standard determinate sentences and a 50% minimum for more serious standard determinate sentences – as well as more tagging to monitor offenders in the community.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Could a drone drop a gun into prison?
The Tories claim the bill as it is would mean 85% (6,500) of the most serious jailed offenders could qualify for early release because they are serving standard sentences, while more than 83% of child sex offenders and 62% of convicted rapists would serve reduced sentences.
They have tabled an amendment to the bill to ensure a carve out for the most serious crimes, so those who commit assault by penetration, rape, grievous bodily harm, stalking and sexual offences against children cannot be released early.
Under Labour plans to abolish custodial sentences below 12 months, the Tories calculated up to 43,000 offenders could avoid jail altogether.
They said the bill could lead to permanent leniency in sentencing.
Read more:
More jail time for criminals who refuse to attend sentencing hearings
Thousands of prison officers to get stab-proof vests
Conservative shadow justice minister Dr Kieran Mullan said: “Labour’s early release plan is a betrayal of victims and a gift to rapists and paedophiles. Keir Starmer is putting criminals before communities and letting predators out early.
“Under Labour’s plans, thousands of the most serious and sickening offences imaginable would no longer be treated as such. What an insult to thousands of victims across the country.
“Anyone who vote for these plans will have to explain exactly why these crimes do not count among the most serious offences.
“The Conservatives will fight this moral rot every step of the way.”
Justice Secretary David Lammy at Belmarsh prison. Pic: PA
But sentencing minister Jake Richards accused the Tories of “rank hypocrisy” as he said the previous government took prisons to “breaking point”.
He said Labour are “cleaning up the mess” left by the Tories and accused them of “feigned outrage”.
“The Conservatives’ rank hypocrisy is shameful. They built this crisis, then feigned outrage when the consequences arrived,” he added.
“They took our prisons to breaking point, released thousands of serious offenders early and pushed Britain to the brink of a situation where police could no longer make arrests and courts could no longer prosecute.
“That would have been a total collapse of law and order.
“Now they attack us for cleaning up the mess they made. They are behaving like arsonists complaining the fire service couldn’t stop the flame.
“This Labour government believes in prison and in punishment that cuts crime.
“We’re delivering the biggest prison expansion since the Victorians, reforming sentencing to keep the public safe and building a justice system worthy of the name.”
British Columbia is moving to ban new crypto mining connections to protect its Hydro power grid. For years, analysts have argued this is the wrong approach.
-
Sports3 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports2 years agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports2 years agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Sports3 years agoButton battles heat exhaustion in NASCAR debut
-
Sports3 years agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Sports4 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Environment2 years agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Environment1 year agoHere are the best electric bikes you can buy at every price level in October 2024