The former head of the Metropolitan Police’s counter-terrorism unit, Mark Rowley, has given a statement outlining the importance of the UK taking on board the magnitude of the threat of far-right extremism. Urging politicians, media and communities to ‘wake up’, he suggested the threat posed by the far right should not be underestimated. Rowley also told the BBC’s Newsnight that the far-right have repackaged their “aggressive intolerance” and are “attaching it to mainstream political debate.”
Mark Rowley was in charge of UK Counter Terrorism policing in the UK from 2014 until his recent retirement from the role. Leading up to his retirement, Rowley had brought this point to the attention of the UK government and media in a lecture at Policy Exchange earlier this year. He commented on how both the right wing and Islamist extremists were almost reinforcing each other’s ideologies as a repercussion of each side to,
“allow each side to reaffirm their grievances and justify their actions.”
In an interview with Newsnight on Friday he said,
“For the first time since the second world war we have a domestic terrorist group, it’s rightwing, it’s neo-Nazi, it’s proudly white supremacist, portraying a violent and wicked ideology,”
Rise of right-wing attacks in the UK
In March this year the Home Office released figures that showed hundreds of children had been referred to the Prevent scheme for far-right extremism. In the year 2016-2017 there were 272 under 15’s and 328 young people aged 15 to 20-year olds referred to the Prevent scheme. Across all ages 928 referrals were made linked to right-wing extremism, an increase of 25% compared to the previous year.
This year the rise of the right-wing has come to the attention of the mainstream in recent years as attacks have become more significant and organised. The first terrorist attack that came to light was the tragic murder of MP Jo Cox in 2016. Jo was murdered by neo-Nazi Thomas Mair at her constituency office whilst meeting her constituents during the EU referendum campaign. The timing of her murder was in the lead up to the EU referendum, which seemed to bolster right wing groups. Jo’s murder brought to light the gravity and severity of impact of the right-wing ideology in the UK. Her murderer admitted that he murdered Jo for political reasons and had been radicalised by the terrorist group National Action – fulfilling the very definition of terrorism.
The following year in 2017 Makram Ali was murdered outside of Finsbury park mosque. The murderer, Darren Osborne, had been radicalised by online material and extremist propaganda from the likes of Tommy Robinson, the founder of the English Defence League (EDL). Again, Osborne’s motives were confirmed to be political, and as were Thomas Mair’s, an act of terrorism.
Then finally this year, the uncovering of plot to murder Labour MP Rosie Cooper shocked the nation. Twenty-three-year-old Jack Renshaw, a member of the neo-Nazi group National Action, admitted plotting to kill MP Rosie Cooper in what he called a “white jihad”. Two other members of National Action were also jailed.
National Action has now been proscribed as a terrorist organisation in the UK. The group were banned by the home secretary after the murder of Jo Cox and were the first far-right group to be proscribed under the Terrorism Act 2000.
The groups – changing their packaging
Taking one step ahead, groups such as National Action, Pegida and Generation Identity have developed their identity by repackaging to a wider more mainstream audience. This move of the far right to the mainstream extends from groups such as Generation Identity that have taken the development of their brand image to a new level, with slick design and interactive social media features to appeal to the young. It has extended even further into mainstream media, from the platforming of Nigel Farage on the UK’s LBC radio, to his invitation to Steve Bannon as a guest on his show, to the Boris Johnson scandals of the last few weeks. All of these demonstrate a palpable move of the right-wing into the mainstream agenda in the UK. Steve Bannon’s attempt to create a right-wing think tank in Europe, as well as the revelation that Tommy Robsinson’s groups and protests were financed by American right-wing groups, demonstrates a worrying trend.
As Mark Rowley rightly indicates, the UK must not close its eyes to the threat of right-wing terrorism that could go uncontested through a vague underpinning of policy and a heavy focus on other forms of terror.