British public ‘at risk’ from Prevent’s failures to identify Islamist terror sympathisers after October 7 attack in Israel, counter-terror reviewer claims

The British public is ‘at risk’ from the government’s Prevent scheme’s failures to identify Islamist terror sympathisers, its independent reviewer has claimed.

Sir William Shawcross said the anti-extremism scheme was failing to identify people sympathising with Islamist terror in the wake of the October 7 attack.

He warned that the scheme continued to have a bias towards tackling the rise in Right-wing terrorists.

He added that members of the ‘underlying Hamas support network’ within the UK were responsible for promoting the mass pro-Palestinian marches which have taken to the streets in recent months.

In a bombshell report published last year, Sir William found that Prevent repeatedly ‘failed’ to identify attackers.

The Home Office said it had implemented almost all of his proposals and eventually would enact them all. 

The scheme places public bodies, such as schools and the police, under a legal duty to identify people in danger of turning to extremism.

Sir William told The Telegraph: ‘The Government is failing to implement my recommendations properly and the British people are therefore in more danger from extremists and terrorists,

‘Some of the things I’ve recommended that have not been carried out do represent such an increased threat because October 7 has changed everything.

‘I am concerned about the increased threat to the public that exists after October 7 which still needs to be addressed.’

He told the Telegraph he had warned ministers a year ago of the ‘pernicious’ threat of the terrorist group.

In a separate interview with the BBC, he said: ‘There are unfortunately quite a lot of Hamas sympathisers and some operatives in this country.

‘Prevent and the police should have been working much harder against those Hamas people in this country.’

A Home Office spokesperson told the BBC the government had made ‘significant progress to deliver a strengthened Prevent’.

They added: ‘William Shawcross’s Review was critical to ensuring Prevent is fit for purpose, which is why we accepted his recommendations in full.

‘One year on, we have delivered 30 of the 34 recommendations he made, and we are making rapid progress on delivering the remaining four.

‘The government agrees that extreme Islamist ideology presents the greatest threat to the UK, and has moved swiftly to update Prevent duty guidance and training to make that clear.’

On Tuesday, ministers marked a year since the report’s publication by saying they had brought the Prevent scheme back to its ‘core mission’.

Home Secretary James Cleverly said the counter-terrorism system needs to ‘continually evolve and adapt’.

He added that – thanks to the work undertaken after the report – ‘we have a first-class Prevent programme’.

He ordered the ‘major reform’ of the flagship anti-terror programme in the wake of the critical report that found it was ‘failing to understand’ Islamist extremism.

But Suella Braverman told MPs at the time that Prevent’s focus ‘must solely be on security, not political correctness’ and said the scheme needs to ‘better understand the threats we face and the ideology underpinning them’.

Ms Braverman also said that antisemitism had been ‘tolerated, normalised and even accepted for too long in the UK.’