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The claim inevitably drew outrage from rightwing commentators. Toby Young, founder of the Free Speech Union (FSU), wrote to the home secretary, Yvette Cooper, pointing out that Prevent’s definitions of “extremism” and “terrorist ideologies” expand “the scope of suspicion to include individuals whose views are entirely lawful but politically controversial”, and that “right-of-centre beliefs risk being treated as ideologically suspect”.
Prevent, the FSU’s Freddie Attenborough wrote in The Critic magazine, “has shifted from focusing on conduct (acquiring weapons, making threats, inciting violence) to treating political ideologies as indicators of risk – the problem being that ‘risky’ ideologies are both vaguely defined and culturally loaded”.
Kenan Malik, The Observer, 15th June 2025.
