Overview

• The government’s updated Prevent “refresher awareness” training now lists cultural nationalism—the belief that Western culture is threatened by mass migration and poor integration—as an extreme right-wing ideology eligible for referrals.
• Free Speech Union and other advocates argue the broadened definition risks chilling lawful right-of-centre political views and conflating mainstream commentary with extremism.
• Lord Young has written to Home Secretary Yvette Cooper urging an urgent review of the classification, noting that Prevent referrals can carry lasting educational, employment and reputational consequences.
• The 2023 Shawcross Review criticised Prevent’s double standard in handling Islamist versus extreme Right-wing threats, and critics say the new approach shifts focus from conduct to ideology itself.
• The Home Office defends the change as a measure to protect those vulnerable to radicalisation; however, Prevent’s record includes failures to identify violent threats such as Axel Rudakubana before he carried out his attack.