Will the Prevent review change our fear about 'Islamophobia'?

The bombshell official review into the Government’s anti-radicalisation Prevent programme will land on desks in Whitehall today – but will, as politicians like to say, any lessons be learnt? Its author, William Shawcross, is reported to have been bold in highlighting the deficiencies of the scheme, which, he says, has ‘failed to tackle the ideological beliefs behind Islamist extremism with potentially serious consequences’.

The review was commissioned three years ago by Priti Patel, a woman who styled herself as a no-nonsense home secretary, but who proved nothing of the sort. Her successor, Suella Braverman, also likes to talk tough. Shawcross’s report has set her the challenge of proving her resolve in confronting the challenge of Islamic extremism.

We don’t need a review to tell us what has gone wrong: several terror attacks in recent years were perpetrated by extremists who had been referred to Prevent, including Usman Khan, who murdered two people at Fishmongers Hall in 2019, and Khuram Butt, the ringleader of the jihadist cell that killed eight people at London Bridge in 2017.