UK Terrorist Threat – Also from the Extreme Right

UK Terrorist Threat – Also from the Extreme Right

British armed police patrol London's Leicester Square in July 2005, following the suicide bombings on the London transport system. The photo, widely published, was transmitted into the Associated Press World wide network directly from a pda using Phojo, from a nearby wifi point.This copy was sent into the Idruna FTP, via Phojo, at the same compression as the original transmission.photo by max nash

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UK police forces fear that the threat of far-right violence is growing and poses danger to communities, says a senior counter-terrorism officer.

The senior national coordinator for counter-terrorism policing, deputy assistant commissioner Neil Basu, said: “Over the past 12 months, there have been indications that the threat from extremists of the right wing could be increasing, we’re aware of this”, according to the Guardian.

Basu made his comments following the sentencing of the neo-Nazi Thomas Mair to a whole-life term for the murder of the Labour MP Jo Cox. Mair shot and stabbed the 41-year-old mother of two in a politically motivated assassination.

When talking about the public image that the police isn’t taking the terror threat from neo-Nazis as seriously as that from Islamic extremists, Basu said: “We recognise that lives can be destroyed and community cohesion undermined in exactly the same way it can from other forms of extremism.”

According to the Guardian, police figures show concerns over potential extreme rightwing radicalisation led to a 73.5% increase in referrals to the anti-radicalisation scheme Prevent last year, compared with the previous 12 months. There were 323 cases referred in 2014-15, increasing to 561 in 2015-16.

Police say one reason for the increase was the introduction of a duty on those working in public services such as health and education to report concerns.

Basu said: “UK security authorities are committed to tackle extremism in all forms and this includes the threat from the extreme right wing. Cases are pursued by our officers with exactly the same level of resource and vigour as other forms of ideology. The vast majority of investigations are led by officers working in the national counter-terrorism network. There have been a number of successful prosecutions over recent years and this is testament to the work of police teams up and down the country”.

Referring to ISIS, Basu said: “The threat from ISIS-inspired groups is still relevant, but our operations reflect a broader range of dangerous ideologies and we will work tirelessly with our partners to confront them. Within counter-terrorism policing headquarters, there is a national unit that receives intelligence from forces around the country relating to domestic extremist groups. This is assessed daily and the unit works with forces to mitigate the risk.

We work with all our communities to inform them about the threats and the role they can play in helping us. Anyone with any concerns is urged to contact their local force.”