Yvette Cooper has announced a “rapid review of extremism” following the violent disorder in towns and cities throughout the UK earlier this summer.
Announcing the review, the home secretary also accused the rioters, who took to the streets after the fatal stabbings of three young girls in Southport, of “hijacking grief”.
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She also pledged “thousands more” neighbourhood police and support officers as part of five “next steps” to improve community cohesion.
In a statement to the House of Commons on Monday, Ms Cooper said: “While millions of decent people across the country were praying for bereaved families, a criminal minority of thugs and extremists saw only an opportunity to hijack a town’s grief.”
Bebe King, six, Alice Dasilva Aguiar, nine, and Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, were killed while attending a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in the Merseyside town on 29 July.
The violence broke out after false rumours were circulated online claiming the suspect was an asylum seeker who arrived in the UK by boat.
Ms Cooper said she has long been concerned that “not enough” was being done to “counter extremism, including both Islamist extremism and far-right extremism”.
She claimed there had been no proper strategy in place since 2015, adding: “I have ordered a rapid review of extremism to ensure we have the strongest possible response to poisonous ideologies that corrode community cohesion and fray the fabric of our democracy.”
Ms Cooper also announced a review into the response of police, saying the systems they had to work with “were too weak”.
The review will look at lessons from the riots to ensure “strong co-ordination and intelligent systems are in place and that there is sufficient public order policing for the future,” she said.
