Politicians have been criticized for “inflammatory language” and peddling conspiracy theories in a report that found the government’s plans to stop extremism from spreading and making its way into the UK lacking.
The report by Dame Sara Khan, a former counter-extremism commissioner, urges a “radical rethink” of how officials should tackle extremism amid the “chronic risk of democratic decline” due to conspiracy theories, increasing social cohesion and other threats.
Anger and grievances about the cost of living as well as the growing crisis between the parties were linked to polarization in relation to declining social and democratic resilience in Britain.
Khan – who was Rishi Sunak’s independent adviser on social cohesion and resilience and the government’s commissioner for tackling extremism under Theresa May and Boris Johnson – sent a report to home secretary Yvette Cooper in response to the government’s review of the extremism count.
It calls for a renewal of the prevention program, which only aims to stop people from radicalizing terrorism and violent extremism without any responsibility for counter-extremism. The report says that Ne “is being questioned about its effectiveness in preventing people from being drawn into terrorism and confused about its role in countering extremism”.
It also indicates the role of elite images using “inflammatory or rhetorical or extremist language, propaganda conspiracies” or “culture wars”.
“Politicians clearly play an important role in what they say and the language they use,” Khan said.
“If you use words that talk about mistrust of the police or you use ‘restoration’ in some way to beat power or votes, then you have to think about the long-term consequences of that.”
“This contributes to the acceleration of the decline of trust in our democracy and institutions and is going to cause a serious and long-term decline. I am concerned that in recent years I have seen increasing numbers of politicians on the bandwagon of conspiracy theories, spreading disinformation online, or using inflammatory and divisive language. I won’t use names, but people know who they are.
This year the leader of UK Reform, Nigel Farage, and other MPs including Richard Tice criticized his comments about the police’s handling of the Southport murders. Both stated that there were “two tiers” of polities, while communities were treated differently.
Khan’s report, Social Threats and Declining Democratic Resilience: The New Global Extremism, reviews existing research and finds:
The report, from consultancy Insights Crest, says Keir Starmer’s government is “boiling the pot” on issues including the cost of living crisis, around immigration, global events such as the Gaza conflict and hostile foreign state intervention.
Recommendations include the establishment of a Cabinet Office body to oversee Whitehall, a strategic approach to curbing and measuring democratic decline.
“What about extremism that falls under the threshold of terrorism? We simply don’t know how much it is because we don’t have an analytical framework or assessment that demarcates between hateful extremism and terrorism,” Khan said.
“If you’re talking about the threat of hateful extremism – as distinct from the threat of terrorism – I’d say it’s more in terms of coming from the far right. We’re talking about extremism that falls below the threshold of terrorism and things like the recent mobs and riots this summer.”