Extreme misogyny will be considered for the first time under Government plans to combat the radicalisation of young men online.
Yvette Cooper, the Home Secretary, has ordered a review of Britain’s counter-extremism strategy to urgently address gaps in the Government’s stance, The Sunday Telegraph can reveal.
It will look at tackling violence against women and girls in the same way as Islamist and far-Right extremism, amid fears that current Home Office guidance is too narrow.
This could mean teachers will be legally required to refer pupils they suspect of extreme misogyny to Prevent, the Government’s counter-terror programme.
It comes after warnings that misogynistic influencers are radicalising teenage boys online.
Ms Cooper said: “For too long, Governments have failed to address the rise in extremism, both online and on our streets, and we’ve seen the number of young people radicalised online grow. Hateful incitement of all kinds fractures and frays the very fabric of our communities and our democracy.”
There are several extremism categories ranked by the Home Office as an area of “concern”, including Islamist, extreme Right-wing, animal rights, environmental and Northern Ireland related extremism.
There is also a category for “incel” – an abbreviation of the term “involuntary celibate” – which refers to a male subculture that includes violent feelings towards women as a result of feeling rejected. Officials now fear that this category does not capture other forms of extreme misogyny.
Teachers, healthcare professionals and local authority staff are under a legal duty to make a referral to the Prevent scheme if they believe someone is susceptible to becoming radicalised.
Anyone who is referred to Prevent is then assessed by their local authority and the police to see if they need to be deradicalised.
There were 6,817 Prevent referrals in 2022-23, with the highest proportion of referrals were classified under the broad category of “vulnerability present but no ideology of counter-terrorism risk”, at 37 per cent, followed by extreme Right-wing at 19 per cent and Islamist extremism at 11 per cent.
Violence against women is ‘national security threat’
The move comes after Sir Mark Rowley, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, said that violence against women and girls should be treated as a national security threat.
Speaking in the wake of a damning report into the murder of Sarah Everard by a serving Scotland Yard officer, he warned that hundreds of thousands of sex abusers and paedophiles were at large and tackling them would require more resources from future governments.
Last month, the National Police Chiefs Council (NPCC) published a major report into violence against women and girls, calling for an overhaul in the way it is dealt with owing to the “epidemic scale” of offending.
Influencers accused of radicalising boys
Elsewhere, police chiefs have accused online influencers like Andrew Tate of radicalising boys into extreme misogyny in a way that is “quite terrifying”.
Maggie Blyth, the NPCC lead for violence against women and girls, said young men and boys are at risk of being radicalised in the same way that terrorists draw in followers.
Tate is a controversial British-American influencer and self-proclaimed “misogynist” who rose to fame after appearing on Big Brother in 2016.
He is currently awaiting trial in Romania over allegations of rape, human trafficking and forming a criminal gang to sexually exploit women. He denies the charges.
Review will dictate new counter-extremism strategy
Ms Cooper’s rapid review, which will be completed later this Autumn, will form the basis of a new counter-extremism strategy which the Home Office intends to launch early next year.
Officials will examine emerging ideologies which are gaining momentum, and will assess any gaps in the current system which leave the country “exposed” to threats that promote violence or undermine democracy.
They will look at the rise of Islamist and far-Right extremism as well as beliefs which fit into broader categories such as an obsession with violence.
The Home Office has previously been criticised for failing to get a grip on domestic extremism. Earlier this year, the independent reviewer of Prevent warned that Islamist extremism is not being effectively tackled by the Government and it is fuelling a “dangerous” surge in anti-Semitism.
Sir William Shawcross said the Government had failed to fully implement his proposals to overhaul Prevent, its counter terror programme, which meant the public faced an increased threat from extremists and terrorists.
He said the failure to take tougher action stemmed from a continuing bias within Prevent towards tackling the rise in Right-wing terrorism rather than the main threat of Islamist terrorism.
Ms Cooper said: “Action against extremism has been badly hollowed out in recent years, just when it should have been needed most.
“That’s why I have directed the Home Office to conduct a rapid analytical sprint on extremism, to map and monitor extremist trends, to understand the evidence about what works to disrupt and divert people away from extremist views, and to identify any gaps in existing policy which need to be addressed to crack down on those pushing harmful and hateful beliefs and violence.
“That work will underpin a new strategic approach to countering extremism from Government, working closely with communities to build consensus and impetus for our plans.”
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story reported that the Government planned to treatextreme misogynyas terrorism; this was incorrect. The Government has ordered a rapid review of extremism, which will include extreme misogyny, to inform a new counter-extremism strategy. We apologise for this error and are happy to correct the record.
