Yesterday evening Labour Home Secretary Diane Abbott called for a ‘major review’ and ‘fundamental rethink’ of the governments Prevent strategy. Abbott spoke at a meeting of the Students Not Suspects campaign, a joint initiative by the National Union of Students alongside activists from the NUT and UCU. She becomes the latest senior Labour figure to call on the policy to be reviewed, after her predecessor Andy Burnham and former Home Affairs Select Committee Chair Keith Vaz.
Abbott spoke about a 12 year old boy whose parents had approached her, who had been referred under Prevent, and noted that most cases referred under Prevent are not acted upon. She told the meeting:
I’m calling for a major review of the strategy and a fundamental rethink from the government.
NUS has pioneered a position of noncompliance with Prevent, a position which has now been adopted by the UCU, NUT and TUC.
The meeting was also addressed by NUS President and Vice-President, Malia Bouattia and Shelly Asquith, Oxford Professor Karma Nabulsi, and French human rights activist Yasser L0uati.
Louati spoke about racism in France, and the hypocrisy that labels of ‘extremism’ were not applied to far right organisations but only applied to muslims.
Prevent has been widely criticised since Theresa May, as Home Secretary, made compliance with the programme a statutory duty in her 2015 Counter-Terrorism and Security Act. As well as objections from Labour, the Liberal Democrats have adopted a formal position of opposition, and the House of Commons Joint Committee of Human Rights.
4,000 referrals of alleged radicalisation were made under Prevent in 2015 – more than twice as many as the previous year. Of them, more than half involved under-18s, and the youngest referral was a 4 year old.
