Government attacked for not publishing full report into extremism

The Government has been criticised for not publishing its full report into funding for extremism, which found that Islamist extremist organisations are receiving hundreds of thousands of pounds a year.

The Home Office review into the nature, scale and origin of the funding of Islamist extremist activity in the UK found that, for a small number of organisations with extremism concerns, overseas funding is a “significant source of income”.

Labour’s shadow home secretary Diane Abbott said there was a “strong suspicion” the report was being “suppressed to protect this Government’s trade and diplomatic priorities, including in relation to Saudi Arabia”.

Green Party co-leader Caroline Lucas also attacked the review for not providing details of which countries funding for extremism comes from.

Home Secretary Amber Rudd said she had decided against publishing the report in full for reasons of national security and because of the volume of personal information it contains.

She said the Government would be directly raising issues of concern with “specific countries as part of our wider international engagement on countering extremism and violent extremism”.

The review, commissioned in November 2015 by then prime minister David Cameron, found the most common source of support for Islamist extremist organisations in the UK is from small, anonymous public donations, with the majority most likely coming from UK-based individuals.

While overseas funding was a significant source of income for some organisations, it was not so important for the vast majority of extremist groups.

But overseas support has also allowed individuals to study at institutions that teach “deeply conservative forms of Islam”, the report found.

Ms Rudd said the review “gives us the best picture we have ever had of how extremists operating in the UK sustain their activities”.