Counterterror chief criticises NUS advice to ‘disengage’ from Prevent

The Metropolitan Police’s former head of counterterrorism has criticised  “highly dangerous and irresponsible” comments made during a National Union of Students workshop in which students were told not to report anyone to Prevent, the government’s strategy to tackle radicalisation, terrorism and extremist behaviour.

In a recording obtained by LBC radio, a student asked what they should do if they had “genuine” concerns someone they knew was watching extremist content.

The conference speaker at the Federation of Student Islamic Societies (FoSIS) event in Liverpool, replied: “Report it to the right person… have that assurance that you’ve to be confident they’re not going to go to Prevent.”

During the event, students were also encouraged to “push universities to get Prevent officers there as decoration” and told: “We do Islamophobia training and in it we teach SU, disengage.”

Responding to the revelations, Sir Mark Rowley stressed the importance of Prevent’s role in saving lives.“It’s about helping people, who are perhaps at a vulnerable point in their lives,” he said.

Information revealed last year by MI5 suggested 31 late-stage terror plots had been foiled over the past four years, many of which were brought to the attention of the intelligence agency by the public.

On FOSIS’ website, Israel is described as an “apartheid state” and it says “the conflation of anti-zionism [sic] with anti-Semitism [has] been weaponised to… silence Muslim students” describing it as a “Zionist narrative”.

In recent weeks, the NUS has been accused of tolerating antisemitism and an investigation is now under way.

The FOSIS recording has prompted Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi to say: “I worry that there is a pattern here and this could be systemic in the NUS. I am deeply, deeply concerned.”