CAA reacts to Government’s new Extremism definition
Today, the Government has announced a new definition of “Extremism”.
The new definition, announced by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, updates the previous definition “to respond to increased extremist threat since the 7th October terror attacks in Israel,” provides “new engagement principles to ensure that Government does not legitimise extremist groups,” and “follows the Prime Minister’s commitment to stamp out extremism to ensure we keep our citizens safe and our country secure.”
A spokesperson for Campaign Against Antisemitism said: “Today’s announcement is a very belated admission by the Government that it has engaged with and even funded extremists over the years, and that it will no longer do so. That is welcome, but that is as far as this announcement goes. It proposes no sanction whatsoever for extremists caught by the new definition other than a loss of state support that they should never have had in the first place, and far too many extremists will not be caught under this definition at all.
“It is particularly ironic that the definition draws on the work of Sir Mark Rowley, who has become one of the country’s foremost enablers of extremism by his refusal to use his existing powers in relation to the weekly marches that are threatening the fabric of our society. Ultimately, today’s move by the Government amounts to yet more words at a time when firm action is already decades late.”