Former Charity Commission chairman to review Prevent anti-extremism programme

William Shawcross said he was 'delighted to lead this important review to ensure that Britain has the most effective strategy possible for preventing people from becoming terrorists'

Credit: David Rose for The Telegraph

An outspoken critic of Islamists’ misuse of charity funding has been appointed to review the Government’s Prevent anti-extremism programme.

William Shawcross, a former chairman of the Charities Commission, has been chosen for the job of independent reviewer of the scheme, which is designed to divert people away from extremism.

At the commission, which he chaired from 2012 to 2018, Mr Shawcross took on the abuse of charities for terrorist or extremist purposes, including those operating in Syria and other high-risk areas.

He faced a bitter court battle with Cage after stepping in to stop the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust and Anita Roddick Foundation from funding it because it did not match their "charitable objectives". 

He said Cage "was not a charity and there is no way in which Cage could represent any charitable purpose under British law". 

The action came after Cage said Mohammed Emwazi, the alleged Islamic State executioner known as Jihadi John, had been a "beautiful young man" who had been radicalised by the attention of the UK security services. It had previously emerged that Cage had used meetings on university campuses to encourage the "sabotage" of Prevent.

Moazzam Begg, the former Guantánamo Bay detainee who was then a director of Cage, told students "any right-minded person" would oppose the Prevent strategy, likening it to the methods of the Stasi secret police in the former East Germany.

The Home Office announced its review of Prevent in 2019 but has struggled to fill the post after Lord Carlile, a former independent reviewer of anti-terror legislation, stepped down after a legal challenge claimed his previous support for Prevent compromised his position.

Communities, activists and civil liberties organisations have been calling for a review of Prevent for years, claiming it fosters discrimination against people of Islamic faith or background.

Mr Shawcross said: "I am delighted to lead this important review to ensure that Britain has the most effective strategy possible for preventing people from becoming terrorists. As an independent reviewer, I look forward to assessing how Prevent works, what impact it has, and what further can be done to safeguard individuals from all forms of terrorist influence."

The appointment was welcomed by Muslim MP Nusrat Ghani, a senior fellow at Policy Exchange, who said: "His record of standing robustly against the extremist misuse of the charitable sector suggests he is an excellent choice for the job."