Home Office cut Islamist deradicalisation funding in half after Oct 7 massacre

Telegraph

08-03-2025

The Prevent counter-terrorism programme spent half as much tackling Islamic extremism after the Oct 7 attacks than it did the year before, The Telegraph can reveal.
Grants made by the programme focused on Islamic extremism went down by almost 50 per cent in the months following the Hamas attack on Israel compared with the same period the previous year.
Between October and December 2023 the Home Office spent approximately £100,000 on grants designed to combat Islamist extremism – 19 per cent of a £529,300 total.
Over that same period in 2022 around £196,000 was given in grants tackling the problem – 29 per cent of a total of £677,716.
Local authorities bid for Prevent grants based on the radicalisation risks in their area before bespoke programmes are carried out by grassroots organisations.
Grants to tackle 'extreme Right-wing' ideologies are also available under the scheme.
The figures, released via a freedom of information request, will raise concerns over the way Prevent allocates funding.
Anti-Semitic incidents reached a record high in 2023 and two thirds of them took place on or after Oct 7.
Community tensions also rose after pro-Palestine protesters took to the streets every weekend in the immediate aftermath of the attacks.
Suella Braverman, the then home secretary, branded them 'hate marches' while police repeatedly arrested demonstrators over anti-Semitic signs and slogans.
In 2023, the Home Office recorded the highest number of terrorism arrests for young people (aged under 17) since records began.
Lord Walney, who served for four years as the Government's independent adviser on political violence and extremism, said the results of the analysis should 'ring alarm bells'.
He said: 'Investment appears to have been cut at precisely the moment when you could expect a rise in extremism after the atrocities of Oct 7.
'There needs to be an urgent explanation from the [Home Office] as to why this funding was cut and whether this was a deliberate decision or dysfunction. Neither bodes well.'
The former Labour MP added that the decision should be investigated as part of the review into Prevent commissioned following the Southport attack last July.
The peer said the review should look at 'whether the system itself is fit for purpose', adding: 'The idea of there having been a cut after [Oct 7] ought to ring alarm bells on that front.'
Prevent funding is released throughout the year, meaning that programmes being delivered in a specific time period were often commissioned before.
The programme has been criticised after it emerged that Axel Rudakubana was referred to the scheme three times before launching his attack in Southport.
The killer was flagged after it was discovered he had been showing an unhealthy interest in terrorism.
The referral was not escalated as it was decided that Rudakubana did not hold a terrorist ideology.
A Home Office spokesman said: 'Prevent remains a vital tool in stopping people from becoming terrorists and has supported nearly 5,000 people away from radicalisation since 2015.'