When Keir Starmer warned that Britain faces a “new threat” and that “terrorism has changed” since the Southport massacre, he was taken to task by several prominent counter-terrorism experts. The threat posed by Axel Rudakubana wasn’t new, they insisted, pointing …
How ideology infiltrated Prevent
It is customary in the aftermath of an atrocity for the spotlight to fall on Prevent, one of the pillars of the Government’s counter-terrorism strategy. It has been under renewed scrutiny since last year’s Southport murders, after it came to …
Why Prevent isn’t fit for purpose
When I heard Axel Rudakubana had entered guilty pleas for the Southport stabbings, I imagined a collective sigh of relief in Downing Street. There would be no prolonged trial. No daily reports of Rudakubana’s gruesome crimes. My scepticism was, I …
Andrew Tate is not a terrorist
In 2020, I attended a meeting with various professionals and volunteers in Nairobi to discuss the recruitment of Kenyans by al-Shabaab, the formidable al-Qaeda affiliate across the border in Somalia. Midway through the presentations by assorted Europeans, the room began …
