Tory MPs worry Michael Gove’s extremism crackdown could backfire

Michael Gove’s extremism crackdown has been the talk of the Tory party for weeks now, with three former Conservative home secretaries warning ahead of today’s official announcement not to use the issue to score political points. Gove, the Levelling Up secretary, has drawn up a new definition of non-violent extremism which, he told the Commons this lunchtime, would include ‘the promotion or advancement of…violence, hatred or intolerance’.

Gove argued that the new definition is ‘more precise and rigorous’ than what came before. The announcement follows Rishi Sunak’s Downing Street speech after George Galloway’s Rochdale by-election, in which the Prime Minister warned that Islamist extremists and far-right groups are ‘spreading a poison’.

The new definition will be used to crack down on government funding for groups that fall foul of the definition, as well as making sure such groups have no contact with the government that could offer them legitimacy.