London’s Metropolitan Police have asserted that “right-wing terrorism” is “increasingly significant in younger people’s ideology,” with counter-terror boss Dominic Murphy saying the force arrested 14 minors for “extreme right-wing terrorism views” in the year from June 2022 to June 2023.
“One of the things that’s startling over the last year or two is the volume of younger people involved in terrorism,” Murphy said.
“Just recently we’ve arrested a 17-year-old boy in south London [on suspicion of] posting material supporting Hamas online, but that 17-year-old boy was one of a high number of young teenagers that are now coming into our casework,” he continued.
“It’s uncomfortable having to consider the risk, harm and threat posed by such young people to the public in London. On average 27 children have been arrested per year since July 2020 — that’s more than double our 20-year average of children being arrested.”
Having mentioned Hamas, however, Murphy was quick to emphasize the supposed right-wing threat, stressing that “of the 25 children arrested in the 12 months to June this year, 14 had extreme right-wing terrorism views compared to nine for Islamist.”
However, the number of successfully executed right-wing terror attacks in the United Kingdom is far smaller than the number of successfully executed Islamist terror attacks — despite Muslims making up a much smaller share of Britain’s population than white people — and the police commander had to concede Islamism remains the country’s leading terror threat.
A leaked review from 2022 suggests the British authorities have been obsessed with right-wing extremism in recent years, pouring disproportionate resources into looking for potential suspects while “ignoring” the much greater risk from radical Muslims. “
