Labour plan to make police log non-crime incidents of antisemitism to track extremists

A Labour government would make police record incidents of antisemitism that just fall short of the criminal threshold in a move aimed at tightening efforts to combat extremism.

Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper says the move  would enable police to better map antisemitic and Islamophobic abuse by identifying  and tracking individuals who might pose a threat.

Writing for the Daily Telegraph Cooper urged police to tackle “hateful extremism”, as recommended by Sir Mark Rowley, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, and by Sara Khan, the former counter-extremism tsar.

The move reverses a decision previously taken by former home secretary Suella Braverman to downgrade the monitoring of non-crime hate incidents.

Calling for a “zero tolerance” approach to antisemitism, Cooper believes police should antisemitic and anti-Muslim hatred that falls short of criminality should still be recorded, including the taking of perpetrators’ names.

She described the Government’s response to growing extremist threats as “too slow, too confused and at times completely counterproductive”.

On Thursday Michael Gove, the Communities Secretary, will outline a new official definition of extremism.

But Cooper said the Government needed to set out a “comprehensive strategy, not simply a new definition”, especially since ministers had failed to update the strategy for nine years.