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Record numbers of Far Right terrorists held in UK jails

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Record numbers of right-wing extremists are being held in prison, official figures show, as they now make up almost a fifth of terrorists in jail.

Home Office data showed the number of far right terrorists in prisons or custody in England and Wales rose from 33 in 2018/19 to 45 in the year to June 30 2020.

They now account for nearly 19 per cent of all terrorist prisoners, up four percentage points in a year.

Of the 243 in custody for terrorist-related offences, around three quarters (76 per cent or 184) were categorised as holding Islamist extremist views.

It follows a Europol report which found the UK suffered the highest number of far right attacks and plots in Europe. It cited one attack carried out in Stanwell, Surrey, and three that were foiled in 2019.

No other EU country recorded more than two planned or attempted far right terror attacks in 2019.

Islamist attacks remain the deadliest and most frequent, but last year the head of UK counter-terror police called far-right extremism the “fastest-growing” terror threat.

“The lone actor threat is the biggest problem,” Assistant Commissioner Neil Basu said. “My biggest concern that is we have seen cases when people both in Islamist and right-wing space where people are radicalised in days or weeks.”

The year to June 2020 also saw the lowest level of arrests for eight years following the decline of Isis and Al Qaeda and increased anti-terror police and spooks activity following major terror attacks in London and Manchester in 2017.

The most common sentence length in the latest year was under four years, which accounted for 44 per cent of sentences (20 of 45 convictions).

There were 13 sentence lengths between 4 and 10 years, accounting for 29 per cent of the total. Two individuals received life sentences, down from 3 in the previous year and 10 in the year before that.