Peer asked to lead review of extreme right and left

Former Labour MP John Woodcock, who now sits in the upper chamber as Lord Walney, has been asked to investigate the extreme fringes on both ends of the political spectrum.

Lord Walney, who was appointed as the government’s independent adviser on political violence and disruption last November, said in an interview with the Telegraph that the UK must take notice of the rise of far-right groups in the US following the storming of the Capitol building last month.

He stressed that there was ‘not an equivalence of threat between the far-left and the far-right’ in the UK, with the latter a far bigger issue. Right-wing extremists now make up almost a fifth of terrorists in jail, rising from 33 in 2018/19 to 45 in the year to 30 June 2020 in England and Wales. Additionally, the largest number of referrals to the Prevents scheme last year were related to far-right extremism.

In the interview, Lord Walney told the Telegraph that there had also been isolated incidents of some leftwing causes ‘overstepping the mark into antisocial behaviour’, and the activities of these groups would also be investigated.

He said: “There have been a number of, at the moment isolated, examples of climate change activist groups, particularly Extinction Rebellion, overstepping the mark into antisocial behaviour. I think there’s been a recognition that, even among that movement, they have at times risked undermining their own cause.

“I’m coming at this with an open mind, but with an understanding that there is clearly a potential for groups to develop into increasingly problematic areas.”