Countering extremism: UK strategy

Approximate read time: 15 minutes

The House of Lords is scheduled to consider the following question for short debate on 12 February 2026:

Lord Goodman of Wycombe (Conservative) to ask His Majesty’s Government what consideration they have given to the introduction of a counter-extremism strategy.

1. Definition of extremism

The current official definition of extremism was introduced by the Conservative government in March 2024:^[1]

Extremism is the promotion or advancement of an ideology based on violence, hatred or intolerance, that aims to:

1. negate or destroy the fundamental rights and freedoms of others; or
2. undermine, overturn or replace the UK’s system of liberal parliamentary democracy and democratic rights; or
3. intentionally create a permissive environment for others to achieve the results in (1) or (2).^[2]

The guidance on this definition states that extremism can lead to:

[…] the radicalisation of individuals, deny people their full rights and opportunities, suppress freedom of expression, incite hatred, erode our democratic institutions, social capital and cohesion, and can lead to acts of terrorism.^[3]

2. Development of UK counter-terror and counter-extremism policy under previous governments

2.1 CONTEST and Prevent

The government’s counter terrorism strategy is CONTEST. CONTEST was first developed in 2003.^[4] It was most recently updated in 2023.^[5] An overview of UK counter-terrorism policy is provided in the House of Lords Library briefing ‘Terrorism in the UK: Legislation and government strategy’ (23 January 2025).

The CONTEST strategy contains four pillars, one of which is the ‘Prevent’ programme. The aim of Prevent is to stop people becoming terrorists or supporting terrorism.^[6] In his 2023 review of Prevent, Sir William Shawcross noted countering non-violent extremism has been identified as one of the objectives of the Prevent programme.^[7] For example, he noted non-violent extremism was formally included within the scope of Prevent as part of the 2011 CONTEST strategy.^[8]

2.2 Counter-extremism strategy (2015)

In 2014, then home secretary Theresa May (now Baroness May of Maidenhead) announced the coalition government would introduce a counter-extremism strategy in addition to the existing Prevent programme. In her speech to the Conservative Party conference in September 2014, she stated the purpose of establishing a counter-extremism strategy was to compliment Prevent by addressing those forms of extremism that fell outside the “hard end of the extremism spectrum”.^[9] She also said the purpose of this strategy would be to “build up society to identify extremism, confront it, challenge it and defeat it”.^[10]

The counter-extremism strategy was published in October 2015 by the Conservative government then led by Prime Minister David Cameron (now Lord Cameron of Chipping Norton).^[11] It included the following definition of extremism:

Extremism is the vocal or active opposition to our fundamental values, including democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty and the mutual respect and tolerance of different faiths and beliefs. We also regard calls for the death of members of our armed forces as extremist.^[12]

Further information on the development of the 2015 counter-extremism strategy is provided in the House of Commons Library briefing ‘Counter-extremism policy: An overview’ (23 June 2017).

2.3 Commission for Countering Extremism

In 2017, the Conservative government then led by Prime Minister Theresa May announced plans to establish the Commission for Countering Extremism.^[13] The role of the commission was to include the identification and exposure of examples of extremism and to advise the government on policies to tackle extremism. The remit of the commission would also include supporting the public sector and civil society “in promoting and defending pluralistic values across all our communities”.^[14] The first commissioner for countering extremism, Dame Sara Khan, was appointed in 2018.^[15] She was replaced in 2021 by Robin Simcox, who remained in post until July 2025.^[16]

The government has yet to announce a replacement for Robin Simcox as commissioner. In August 2025, the Home Office minister Lord Hanson of Flint said in response to a parliamentary written question the government was reviewing this role and would update Parliament on its plans “in due course”.^[17]

2.4 Criticism of 2015 counter-extremism strategy

The 2015 strategy and how it was implemented have subsequently been criticised in several reviews commissioned by the Conservative government. The Commission for Countering Extremism reviewed the counter-extremism strategy in 2021. It concluded that, while there had been some good work undertaken as part of the strategy, its implementation had been “confusing and ineffective”.^[18] It also argued the definition of extremism used for the strategy had been “vague and ambiguous”.^[19]

In his 2023 review of Prevent, Sir William Shawcross criticised the strategy as “too broad in focus” and argued that, without legislative “teeth”, it was unable to achieve the impact desired.^[20] He also concluded the objectives of the counter-extremism strategy overlapped with those of Prevent, leading to confusion over where the delineation ought to be between counter-extremism and the role of Prevent.

In March 2024, the Conservative government, then led by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, published the review of social cohesion and democratic resilience in the UK, conducted by the former commissioner for countering extremism, Dame Sara Khan.^[21] In this review, Dame Sara criticised the government’s approach to extremism, arguing the Home Office and the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities had failed to demonstrate a “strategic or comprehensive approach”.^[22] A summary of this review’s recommendations is provided in the House of Lords Library briefing ‘The importance of social cohesion and communities’ (29 November 2024).

The 2015 counter-extremism strategy has not been updated since its publication. Commenting in 2025, Dame Sara described the strategy as having been “scrapped” in 2021.^[23]

2.5 Review of political violence and disruption

In addition to Dame Sara’s review of social cohesion and democratic resilience in the UK, the Conservative government published a review of political violence and disruption in the same year.

In November 2020, the Conservative government, then led by Prime Minister Boris Johnson, announced Lord Walney (Crossbench) would be appointed as the UK special envoy for countering violent extremism.^[24] The following year it announced Lord Walney would lead a review on the issue of political violence and disruption.^[25] Lord Walney’s report on preventing political violence and coercion in the UK was published in May 2024 under Rishi Sunak’s Conservative government.^[26]

In this report, Lord Walney argued the UK had “a growing problem with extreme protest movements that use political violence, intimidation, incitement, law breaking, and disruption”.^[27] He said that while the UK should uphold the right to protest, tactics used by some protestors such as mass disruption were causing interference with “the rights of ordinary citizens in going about their daily lives”.^[28] He also argued these tactics included the harassment and intimidation of elected politicians.^[29]

This report made several recommendations, including that more attention should be paid to extreme protest by groups acting on behalf of causes associated with the left, arguing the government should address “gaps in knowledge within government and law enforcement agencies of the ideologies, tactics, and actors within extreme left-wing and anarchist protest movements”.^[30] Further information on Lord Walney’s report is provided in the House of Commons Library briefing ‘Police powers: Protests’ (8 January 2026).

Lord Walney remained in his role as independent adviser on political violence and disruption until February 2025.^[31] The government has not appointed a replacement.

3. Current government policy

Since coming to office, the Labour government has conducted a review of counter-extremism policies as well as an independent review of the Prevent programme. It has also made several related announcements concerning counter-extremism and counter-terrorism policy.

3.1 Review of counter-extremism policies (2024)

In its 2024 general election manifesto, Labour said it would update the rules around counter-extremism, including online, to “stop people being radicalised and drawn towards hateful ideologies”.^[32]

In August 2024, the then home secretary, Yvette Cooper, announced the government would be conducting a review of existing counter-extremism policies.^[33] In November 2024, the government confirmed this review had concluded.^[34] In December 2024, Ms Cooper said that, following this review, the government would increase funding for counter-terrorism police and the intelligence services, strengthen the Prevent programme and establish a new permanent independent Prevent commissioner.^[35] Ms Cooper also said further updates on the government’s counter-extremism policy would be provided in 2025.

In January 2025, the think tank Policy Exchange published a report outlining what it stated were leaked sections of the advice the government received as part of this review.^[36] This included proposals to expand the definition of extremism to include more activities and behaviours than are currently covered, including:

[…] violence against women and girls, “spreading misinformation and conspiracy theories,” an interest in gore or extreme violence, misogyny, or involvement in “an online subculture called the manosphere”.^[37]

The BBC also reported that the then home secretary had rejected some of the advice she had received as part of this review, while noting it had not seen the full text of the recommendations.^[38] Speaking in the House of Commons, Minister of State at the Home Office Dan Jarvis acknowledged that documents included in the Policy Exchange report had been leaked but said that:

Many documents produced across government as part of commissioned work are not implemented and do not constitute government policy. This work did not recommend an expansion in the definition of extremism, and there are not and have never been any plans to do so. To be clear, the leaked documents were not current or new government policy.^[39]

3.2 Review of Prevent (2025)

In January 2025, following the conviction and sentencing of Axel Rudakubana for the 2024 murders in Southport, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer announced that the “entire counter-extremist system” would be considered as part of a review by Lord Anderson of Ipswich, the independent Prevent commissioner.^[40] This review also considered the murder of Sir David Amess in 2021 by the Islamist terrorist Ali Harbi Ali. Both Harbi Ali and Rudakubana had been referred to Prevent before these murders were committed.

Lord Anderson’s report was published in July 2025.^[41] The report’s recommendations included that the Prevent strategy should be applied to individuals like Rudakubana “who have no fixed ideology but a fascination with extreme violence or mass casualty attacks”.^[42]

The report also considered the extent to which the Prevent programme was effective in countering non-violent extremism. Lord Anderson noted education and health professionals were required to be alert to non-violent extremism under the Prevent programme. However, he argued that Prevent was “not the appropriate vehicle for a comprehensive strategy to counter extremism in its various manifestations”.^[43] He also noted the recommendation of Dame Sara’s review of counter-extremism that the government should implement a more comprehensive framework for assessing extremism.

3.3 Recent government announcements

In February 2025, the government introduced the Crime and Policing Bill. This bill contains several measures concerning extremism, including the establishment of youth diversion orders.^[44] These are intended to divert young people involved in terrorism-related offending away from the criminal justice system. The bill also includes several new offences concerning activities relating to protests, including wearing face coverings in a designated locality and the possession of pyrotechnics at protests.^[45] This bill is currently in the House of Lords. Further information on these and other provisions is included in the House of Lords Library briefing ‘Crime and Policing Bill’ (10 September 2025).

In February 2025, the government announced the appointment of a working group to establish a definition of anti-Muslim hatred/islamophobia.^[46] The government argued this was necessary to provide guidance to government and other bodies to support action on tackling religiously motivated hate targeted toward Muslims. The government has confirmed the working group had submitted their advice and it is currently being considered by ministers.^[47]

On 24 June 2025, the government published its new national security strategy.^[48] One of the objectives of the strategy was to protect the UK from the threat of terrorist attacks.^[49] Policies to achieve this outlined in the strategy included exploring legislation to counter the threat posed from individuals like Axel Rudakubana “who are fixated by extreme violence, seemingly for its own sake”.^[50]

Shabana Mahmood replaced Yvette Cooper as home secretary on 5 September 2025. In October 2025, in response to her statement on the terrorist attack on the Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation Synagogue in Manchester, Ms Mahmood was asked in the House of Commons to update the House on the government’s plans to develop a new counter-extremism strategy. She said:

I am myself reviewing all the previous findings made by experts following earlier attacks, under the previous government and our own, to make sure that we have implemented all relevant recommendations and that our response is alive to the scale of the challenge.^[51]

In November 2025, the government announced Lord Macdonald of River Glaven (Crossbench) would be conducting a review of public order and hate crime legislation.^[52] The home secretary said this review would include the impact of “disruptive and intimidating protests” and the powers police have to manage protests.^[53] The review is scheduled to conclude by February 2026.

4. Calls for a new counter-extremism strategy

In addition to the recommendations referred to above, several individuals and organisations have called for the establishment of a new counter-extremism strategy.

For example, in April 2024, the think tank the Institute for Strategic Dialogue argued the UK needed to adopt a “holistic policy strategy” for tackling extremism in the UK.^[54] It argued this strategy should address social cohesion and local initiatives to address violence and hate crimes, including gender-based abuse against women and girls online.

Writing in the Telegraph in December 2025, Lord Goodman of Wycombe argued that a new strategy is necessary in order to address the growing threat posed by Islamist extremism. He argued, given the context of recent terrorist attacks in Manchester and Bondi Beach in Australia in December 2025:

You would have thought that the government would be straining at the leash to mobilise the moderate majority from all backgrounds. Not a bit of it. Remarkably, there is no government counter-extremism strategy. There was until recently a counter-extremism commissioner, Robin Simcox. He hasn’t been replaced.^[55]

Writing for the Observer in July 2025, Dame Sara Khan has argued that both previous governments and the current government have failed to establish a comprehensive approach which addresses both extremism and its causes.^[56] She criticised the current government for not introducing a replacement to the 2015 strategy, arguing there was an ‘assumption’ that the Prevent strategy alone could address extremism that fell below the terrorism threshold, which she characterised as “a widely held misunderstanding of its remit”.^[57]

5. House of Commons Home Affairs Committee: Inquiry into new forms of extremism

In May 2025, the House of Commons Home Affairs Committee announced it would be launching an inquiry into new forms of extremism.^[58] As part of this inquiry, the committee has collected evidence on the reasons individuals—including young people online—might be drawn towards extremism. This inquiry is currently ongoing.

As part of this inquiry, the committee has taken evidence from both former counter-extremism commissioners, Dame Sara Khan and Robin Simcox. During his evidence session in July 2025, Mr Simcox addressed issues which included how the government should address extremism without a fixed ideology or with a mixed or unclear ideology.^[59] He warned that if the Prevent programme was increasingly used to address this form of extremism, this would lead to a large increase in referrals. He noted those with “a broader interest in violence” were likely to be significantly more numerous than “the terrorist or potential terrorist cohort”.^[60]

Speaking in July 2025, Dame Sara told the committee that, in the absence of a new counter-extremism strategy, the government had become over-reliant on Prevent.^[61] She restated her argument that Prevent could not effectively address extremism in general given it was primarily a counter-terrorism programme.

Dan Jarvis gave evidence to the committee on the same day. He described the Home Office’s policy on counter-extremism as follows:

Home Office efforts to counter extremism focus on the highest-harm threats, in direct support of our core counter-terrorism and wider national security missions. However, it is clear that there are areas where we must, as a society, consider going further. Of particular concern to me is the role of the online environment. The speed with which hateful and violent content can spread online is of course unprecedented. What is unacceptable offline should not be acceptable online, and platforms that enable the dissemination of illegal material must be properly held to account.^[62]

He was asked whether he agreed with Dame Sara’s assessment of the government’s policy on countering extremism and the need for a distinct counter-extremism strategy.^[63] Mr Jarvis did not address her comment directly saying that he had not heard her evidence. However, he was “keen to listen to and act on her advice”.^[64]

6. Read more

• MI5, ‘Director General Sir Ken McCallum gives threat update’, 16 October 2025
• House of Lords Library, ‘Terrorism in the UK: Legislation and government strategy’, 23 January 2025
• House of Lords Library, ‘Community cohesion: The role of integration’, 6 March 2025
• House of Lords Library, ‘Antisemitism on university campuses’, 1 May 2025

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Image by Nick Cooper on Wikimedia Commons.