MPs call for counter-terrorism overhaul to better engage young people

The Prevent strategy was introduced after the 2005 London bombings to identify those at risk of terrorism and radicalisation. Since 2015 it has required teachers to refer at-risk pupils to the police.

But in a House of Commons debate on the strategy, MPs criticised it for failing to effectively engage with young people.

Shadow international development minister Imran Hussain said that young people in his Bradford East constituency and the wider Muslim community have a "massive mistrust" of the strategy, which is in need of a "complete rethink".

"We need a strategy that is as effective as possible, that engages Muslim youth and communities and that comes without stories, although some may be fabricated, of cameras, spying and young children being placed in these programmes," Hussain added.

Another to speak in favour of an overhaul of the strategy was Bradford West MP Naseem Shah, who said it had created a "them and us situation between the government and the Muslim community".

She was particularly concerned that children under the age of 10 are being referred to Prevent on a daily basis. 

She said: "I am the mother of a five-year-old, and when he has a tantrum or a paddy it is very extreme, but that does not mean he is on the slippery slope to extremism. Children are children."

She also cited the case of a young person from Luton she met who had been referred to one of Prevent's programmes after campaigning on issues related to Palestine and Gaza "just because he was passionate about those ideas".

She called for an "independent inquiry" into the strategy to ease "suspicion" and improve effectiveness.

Home Office minister Ben Wallace dismissed MPs' concerns saying that "ultimately, Prevent is working".

He said: "We have saved lives, we are preventing the far right from rising in other parts of the country and we are making sure that young people have a future," adding "it is not the disaster that it is painted to be".

Last summer the government launched a £1.5m fund through the Prevent strategy for projects that help prevent people, particularly the young, from becoming radicalised.