Claims of two-tier policing are a “right-wing extremist narrative”, an internal Home Office review into extremism has suggested.
Civil servants reportedly found the claim, pushed by right-wing figures including Elon Musk following the UK riots last summer, was among a litany of "damaging extremist beliefs".
The review, commissioned by Home Secretary Yvette Cooper after last summer’s riots following the Southport attacks, recommends the UK should shift its approach to tackling extremism from “ideologies of concern” to “behaviours,” including violence against women and girls, and “spreading misinformation and conspiracy theories”.
The review has not yet been published, but leaked sections of the report were published by the Policy Exchange think tank, which criticised its approach. Ms Cooper disagrees with some of the central findings of the report, the BBC reported.
Among its 38 recommendations are for police to increase their recording of non-crime hate incidents, and forcing social media companies to proactively remove content that encourages rioting.
Leaked sections of the report recommend that officials focus "behaviours of concern" rather than "ideologies", citing violence against women, spreading misinformation and, fascination with gore or involvement as being among extreme behaviours, according to Policy Exchange.
The report is said to admit some who display such behaviours would not count as extremist.
Former journalist and government advisor Andrew Gilligan and Paul Stott, both of Policy Exchange, said the advice if acted upon by ministers risked free speech.
“Counter-extremism policy, and Prevent in particular, is already intensely controversial, regularly if often unfairly accused of interfering with people’s democratic rights or creating target communities,” they said.
“Defining as extremist a massively expanded range of activity and behaviours, including criticism of two-tier policing, risks dramatically inflating that problem.
“It risks genuine harm to democratic debate, damaging what it seeks to protect.”
Concern was also raised by former Metropolitan Police chief superintendent, Dal Babu, who told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that Scotland Yard was already struggling with resources to combat extremism without a broadened definition.
Chris Philp, the shadow home secretary, was among those criticising the review, saying it was “draconian” to suggest claims of two-tier policing were extremist.
He told The Times newspaper: “Commenting on police response to incidents is not far-right. We live in a democracy and people are entitled to debate the way we are policed.
“That’s not far-right; that’s part of legitimate debate in a democracy. You can agree or disagree with these views but freedom of speech means they have the right to express them.”
Security minister Dan Jarvis said ministers had rejected the advice contained in the report.
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."
