Accusations of two-tier policing reflect a “right-wing extremist narrative”, according to a leaked Home Office review.
Civil servants reportedly found the claim, promulgated by several high-profile UK politicians and tech billionaire Elon Musk, as among a series of “damaging extremist beliefs”.
Home secretary Yvette Cooper said in August she had directed the Home Office to conduct a “rapid analytical sprint on extremism” to map and monitor trends and inform the government’s strategy.
Cooper said the review, commissioned after last summer’s riots, would “map and monitor extremist trends” and “understand the evidence about what works” to “underpin a new strategic approach to countering extremism from government”.
The review has not yet been published, but leaked sections have been seen by the Policy Exchange think tank, which is critical of its findings.
The think tank said the review lists “behaviours and activity of concern” and “damaging extremist beliefs” including misogyny, violence against women and girls and having a “fixation on gore and violence without adherence to an extremist ideology”.
Those findings came alongside the suggestion that claims of “two-tier” policing are an example of a “right-wing extremist narrative”. In recent months, Reform UK leader Nigel Farage and shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick have been among the most prominent politicians to have called for an end to so-called “two-tier policing”.
However, BBC News reports that Cooper disagrees with some of the central findings of the Home Office report — which broadly recommends that the UK’s approach to extremism should be based on concerning behaviours and activity rather than 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.”
According to Policy Exchange, 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.
Former journalist and government advisor Paul Stott and Andrew Gilligan, now of Policy Exchange, said: “This new approach risks swamping already stretched counter-extremism interveners and counter-terror police with tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of new cases, making it more likely that dangerous people will be missed.
“Some of the definitions of extremism also threaten free speech, defining aspects of normal and legitimate political debate as extremist.”
Chris Philp, the shadow home secretary, has also reacted critically. He argued that the leaked report is “smearing as ‘far right’ those who raise concerns about young girls being gang raped”.
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.
“We cannot overlook the fact that Islamist terrorism is responsible for 94% of terrorist-caused deaths in the last 25 years.
“The government may want to ignore this, but they have an over-riding duty to protect the public.
“Other appalling and unacceptable criminal behaviour that is not ideologically motivated – of which there are many kinds – should be dealt with via the police and criminal justice system, and via other agencies such as social services and mental health services, including sectioning those that present a risk.”
Josh Self is Editor of Politics.co.uk, follow him on Bluesky here.
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