A Conservative Party minister is working on a new definition of extremism which his own colleagues say will harm genuinely conservative Britons.
Free speech campaigners are deeply concerned by the threat now posed to individual liberty. Michael Gove, the socially liberal Tory secretary of state for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, will be responsible for updating the definition of extremism, which critics say is open to “political abuse.”
The Times reports that Gove will expand the current definition of extremism, as “vocal or active opposition to fundamental British values,” to cover all “protected characteristics” as listed under the Equalities Act 2010, which alongside race, sex and disability include others such as gender reassignment, sexual orientation, and religion or belief.
News of the plan follows Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s speech on Friday in which he ignored the main causes of increasing social division—unfettered mass immigration and multiculturalist policy-making—and chose instead to equate growing Islamic extremism with what commentator Paul Emery has dismissed correctly as the “impotent” far-right.
The PM’s address was prompted by odious chants on weekly London demonstrations—such as “from the river to the sea,” effectively calling for Israel to be wiped off the map—and alleged death threats to MPs from pro-Palestine protesters. However, his government’s proposed expansion of the definition of ‘extremism’ will likely penalise people and groups ranging from feminist critics of trans ideology to Christian defenders of the traditional family and even those who oppose the influence of Islamism in British society.
Gove—who just last year railed against “cancel culture,” which he said places democracy “under attack,”—is reportedly behind the new definition. As the author of the 2006 book Celsius 7/7, he attacked British appeasement of Islamic fundamentalism. Now he appears to have fallen into line behind Sunak’s equation of Islamism and the ‘far right.’ One government source told The Times:
You can see how, very quickly, small ‘c’ conservative groups will be hit with this.
The newspaper also cited “senior government figures who have seen the current definition” and who “have warned it will ‘provoke tensions’ with gender critical groups and a range of organisations such as religious groups who campaign against issues such as abortion or gay marriage.”
This worrying shift coincides with Sunak’s decision to push ahead with a ban on trans conversion therapy, despite being warned that this could criminalise legitimate conversations between parents and their own children.
The Freedom Association campaign group complained that extremism is “virtually impossible to define” and that “allowing politicians to define it opens the door to censorship and is a serious threat to free speech.”
Caroline Slocock, who is director of the Civil Exchange think tank, added that the move is “open to partisan, political abuse.”
Gove is expected to deliver his new definition next week. Reports that his team is adding “extra protection” to protect conservative thinking have clearly done little to settle the nerves of freedom of expression campaigners.
