News from Unmesh Desai: Local AM uses Mayor’s Question Time to raise concerns about far right

Local London Assembly Member, Unmesh Desai AM, questioned the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, on the rising far right terrorist threat at this week’s Mayor’s Question Time (Thursday 24th June). Mr Khan reassured Mr Desai that “we have launched a second round of funding for the Countering Violent Extremism programme, as we are keen to make sure we do work around resilience, as well as enforcement”.



Mr Desai questioned the Mayor about the Met’s current counter terror initiatives, in the wake of the inquest into the Fishmongers’ Hall terrorist incident in 2019, where failures by MI5, counter-terror police, probation services and a multi-agency public protection panel were cited as contributing factors in the two murders by Usman Khan.

Mr Desai asked whether the Mayor’s upcoming review of the Harris Report will consider Multi Agency Public Protection Arrangements. The Mayor confirmed that QC Jonathan Hall has been commissioned by the Government to look into the effectiveness of these arrangements, and that the updated Harris Review will consider his findings.

With last week marking the fifth anniversary of the murder of Jo Cox MP, at the hands of a far right terrorist, Mr Desai asked the Mayor how he planned to combat the threat from the far right in London.

This comes on the back of a significant numbers of arrests of far-right terrorists made around the country in recent months. Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner Neil Basu recently confirmed that 10 out of 12 under-18s arrested for terrorism last year were linked to extreme right-wing ideology. Nationally, more than 60 far-right activists have been sentenced for terrorist offences since 2017 and 12 were convicted last year.

Mr Khan outlined how there has been a rise in referrals from the far right and that, as Covid restrictions are lifted, there are concerns that the increase in the number of people who have been radicalised online could potentially lead to violent acts.



Local London Assembly Member, Unmesh Desai AM, said:



“We have to ensure we are doing everything we can to protect ordinary Londoners from terrorism, including the growing threat of far right extremists.



“It’s been five years since Jo Cox was murdered by a far-right extremist, but the threat from the far-right only continues to grow.



“I was reassured that the Mayor outlined a number of steps being taken from City Hall to tackle terrorism, and I am grateful that an update to the Harris Review has been commissioned to keep Londoners safe.”