UK democratic rights under threat, says government adviser on social cohesion

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Politicians, academics, artists and journalists are self-censoring on a large scale because of “severe levels of harassment and abuse”, according to the government’s independent adviser on social cohesion.

Dame Sara Khan will warn of a culture of fear stalking British public life in a report to be published on Monday, and urge the government to do more to tackle it.

Khan’s findings will fuel the already heated debate over the rise of extremism in Britain, with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak recently claiming that “mob rule” was replacing democratic rule.

The study tackles issues including disinformation, extremism and intimidation, which she claims have stifled free speech and debate across a range of areas of public life.

Sunak said this month that Islamists and the far right were “two sides of the same extremist coin” who loathed Britain, but Khan says the government lacks a “cohesive strategy” to deal with the threat.

Her report contains polling that found 76 per cent of the public had refrained from expressing their personal views in public through fear of receiving freedom-restricting harassment. 

Speaking to Sky News’s Trevor Phillips on Sunday, Khan said she was talking about people including “councillors, journalists, teachers and academics, those working in the arts and cultural sector”, who felt compelled to self-censor.

She said that 27 per cent of the public had experienced “life-altering consequences of restricting harassment”, with some having to take additional security measures, move house or leave their job.

She said her report would “shed light on the lack of capability, strategy and response to the slow and insidious erosion of our democratic rights and freedoms by a diverse range of actors”.

“I am calling on the government to commit to a new strategic approach to help protect and preserve our democratic way of life — while also harnessing the many economic, political and social benefits social cohesion can bring to our country,” she said.

Khan wants Michael Gove, communities secretary, to set up a new unit to oversee social cohesion and “democratic resilience” and to have a five-year plan to tackle the issue.

Earlier this month Gove published a new definition of “extremism” intended to stop the government funding or giving any support to bodies it believes are advancing “extremist ideologies”.

However, former Tory home secretaries Dame Priti Patel, Amber Rudd and Sir Sajid Javid recently warned against politicising extremism while Sunak was criticised for not returning £10mn to a Tory donor, Frank Hester, after reports emerged of “racist” comments about MP Diane Abbott.

Gove said: “The Khan Review shines a light on some fundamental gaps in our system and clearly sets out her view of what government should do to address these flaws.”

He said he would set out a full response before the summer break but agreed that the “freedom-restricting harassment” identified by Khan needed to be addressed.