Aftermath of the Oslo bomb
The top-level National Security Council met at 9.30 on Monday morning to discuss, among other things, the UK’s response to the Norwegian massacre.
One of the things that was decided was that ministers and police and security services should all check to see whether they and their departments are doing enough to prevent attacks from far-right extremists. Their findings will be reported back to Sir Peter Ricketts, the national security adviser.
A government spokesman said:
After an incident of this kind it is right to look at what we are doing and make sure if there are lessons to be learned that we learn them.
Officials are warning against interpreting this as a full-scale review of the government’s counter-terrorism strategy, but there appears to be a recognition that some organisations may have spent so long focusing on Islamist threats from the likes of al-Qaeda that they have stopped focusing on domestic threats from far-right groups.
The Home Office tells me that Theresa May has never made a siginificant statement or speech on the threat from home-grown right-wing groups. That may be about to change.
Jim Pickard
Kiran Stacey