Downing Street is facing a backlash from Conservative MPs and peers over moves to create a broader of definition of extremism in response to what Rishi Sunak describes as the threat of “mob rule”.
Michael Gove, the communities secretary, is expected to unveil plans next week that would allow the government, universities and local authorities to cut off links to groups identified as “extremist”.
Organisations such as the Muslim Council of Britain and protest groups such as Palestine Action are among those that could be affected by the non-statutory move to block groups from funding or accessing venues if they are regarded as promoting an ideology that undermines “British values”. The plan was reported by the Observer last year.
A minister said on Tuesday that he would not be happy if, for example, gender-critical feminists were labelled as extremists by a change of government policy.
The trade minister Greg Hands told Times Radio that the prime minister had talked about taking on extremism and the government needed to work on definitions.
“The communities secretary, Michael Gove, is doing that right now. More work is being done. But obviously we need to target real extremism and not just a difference of views, honestly held views about these things,” he added.
The rightwing Tory MP Miriam Cates and Lord Frost, the high-profile rightwing peer, are among those who have expressed opposition amid concerns that the move could have an inadvertent impact on anti-abortion groups, advocates for socially conservative causes and those opposed to transgender rights.
“Any attempt to define extremism or fundamental British values is very risky because one person’s extremism is another person’s sincerely held and lawful belief,” Cates told the Guardian.
“An obvious is example is where I regularly call trans rights activists extremists for believing a man can be a woman just because he says he is, and that this gives him the right to enter women-only spaces, but equally I am called an extremist for believing there are only two biological sexes and that you can’t change sex.”
“These are debates that we should be able to have lawfully in society. We should be able to call each other extremists, but it also means those views should not be banned,” said the MP, one of the leaders of the New Conservatives grouping of Tory MPs.
In a move that also raises the prospect of unusual alliances emerging between those who might disagree on other issues but who are united by hostility to the proposals, Cates said she would be raising her concerns with the government and other MPs
Frost, Boris Johnson’s chief Brexit negotiator, said on X that he was “very much” in agreement with a tweet by Cates who had used the platform to say that a “broader definition of extremism” was not needed.
“What we need is proper enforcement of the laws we have against, for example, incitement to violence,” added Frost.
The proposals come after a speech outside Downing Street last Friday in which Sunak claimed extremist groups in the UK were “trying to tear us apart”.
In a statement that came hours after George Galloway won a byelection in Rochdale, the prime minister said: “You cannot be part of our civic life if your agenda is to tear it down.”
The address contained no detail of new policies, save for a pledge that the government would “redouble” support for the Prevent counter-terrorism programme, demand that universities stop extremist activity on campus and take action on extremists entering the UK.
Ministers are also considering proposals to ban MPs and councillors from engaging with groups such as the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC), Extinction Rebellion and Just Stop Oil.
The plans, put forward by the government’s adviser on political violence, John Woodcock, say mainstream political leaders should tell their representatives to employ a “zero-tolerance approach” to groups that use disruptive tactics or fail to stop “hate” on marches.
A spokesperson for Palestine Action, a direct action group that has been among those which reports have suggested could be identified as extremist, said any change would not stop its activists and that it was continuing to draw support.
“There have been attempts before to define extremism before and it did not work, but when we are talking about British values as they are I refuse to believe that it amounts to supporting genocide in Gaza,” she told the Guardian.
“If anything, the recent announcements show that lobbying politicians and going on marches have failed to change this country’s stance on Israel.
The group’s main targets are the sites of an Israeli arms manufacturer. One of its co-founders who went on trial last year with others for damaging Elbit Systems Limited’s UK sites said they were justified because they were trying to stop people being bombed.
