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Intelligence and Security Committee Report: Extreme Right-Wing Terrorism/A Changing Demographic

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4595117Intelligence and Security Committee Report: Extreme Right-Wing Terrorism2022the Intelligence and Security Committee of Parliament

​A CHANGING DEMOGRAPHIC

88. MI5 has observed a shift in the age, demographic and backgrounds of those associated with Extreme Right-Wing Terrorism (ERWT)—moving from predominantly male members, often with criminal backgrounds, to individuals with no criminal background, who are often well educated, technically sophisticated and increasingly under the age of 18. MI5 attributes some of this to an increasingly pessimistic narrative regarding the prospects of the UK's young generation which, it argues, serves to enhance anxiety and a victim culture, both of which ERWT ideologies are quick to exploit. MI5's assessment is that:

while a wider sense of disillusionment amongst many young people is unlikely to change in the short to medium future, the number of young people who fall victim to ERWT radicalisation is likely to increase, increasing the overall threat.[1]

89. However, MI5 investigations indicate that rhetoric in the online space does not necessarily translate into real-world action, as in the case *** "their claims were intended to bolster their status rather than indicating genuine intent".[2] Homeland Security Group pointed to the term 'edgy boi' as having particular significance in the Extreme Right-Wing (XRW) space, since it denotes an individual who espouses views which are broadly considered on the margins of acceptable speech or hate speech.[3] They drew an analogy between this behaviour and:

punks in the 70s . . . this is the kind of thing they are doing now, taking on some of the Nazi iconography, the sense that within particularly the school system they are constrained in what they can say and do. These are deliberately extreme positions in order to shock and the existence of internet communities, which allows effectively an echo chamber where you can find other people to encourage you in those views, allows that to come out more.[4]

90. MI5 advises that a significant percentage of ERWT Subjects of Interest are under 24 (the equivalent proportion in relation to Islamist terrorism is much lower), a development that Jacob Davey at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD) pointed to as "movements which are by youth, for youth".[5] However, there are always exceptions to what appears to be a 'baked-in' trend. The last three successful ERWT attacks in the UK were carried out by older males who did not demonstrate high levels of technological awareness.[6] Only one of the attackers, Vincent Fuller, stated his intent in the online space to carry out a terrorist attack—and then only less than 24 hours before the attack.

91. Women make up a very small proportion of ERWT *** they typically play a role ***. Due to the fractured nature of Right-Wing Extremist ideologies, there are significant differences in the way women are treated in these movements. For example, in White Nationalist and ​White Supremacist communities, white women's role as mothers is seen as key to the aim of creating a white majority.

92. JTAC assesses, however, that the accessibility of the online space, coupled with the growing trend towards low-sophistication attacks, will lower barriers to terrorist attacks regardless of gender, and in relation to XRW-affiliated women ***.[7] Homeland Security Group confirmed that the statistics show that ERWT is "heavily skewed towards men" with CTP confirming that from their policing statistics the data showed that 93% of the people they are dealing with in the ERWT space are male.[8]

93. The Head of Counter Terrorism Policing (CTP) told the Committee that in "criminological terms that [it] is not unusual" to see a higher percentage of men in the ERWT space as "violence [is] a peculiarly male obsession" and that the "actual violent acts are committed mostly by men".[9] The Director General for Homeland Security Group also said that they had started to see a couple of "vocal female, significant female voices out there", and that there was potential for the proportion of women involved to grow, as has happened in "other threat areas, so it is an important point for [HMG to be] looking at any potential trajectory and getting ahead".[10]

  1. ↑ MI5 Strategic Intelligence Group paper, 13 January 2020.
  2. ↑ ***
  3. ↑ Written evidence – Home Office, 27 May 2021.
  4. ↑ Oral evidence – Home Office, 29 April 2021.
  5. ↑ Oral evidence – Jacob Davey, ISD, 16 December 2020.
  6. ↑ Stanwell stabbing, March 2019 (Vincent Fuller, aged 50); Finsbury Park mosque attack, June 2017 (Darren Osborne, aged 47) and murder of Jo Cox, June 2016 (Thomas Mair, aged 52).
  7. ↑ JTAC paper, 21 January 2021.
  8. ↑ Oral evidence - Home Office and CTP, 28 April 2021.
  9. ↑ Oral evidence - CTP, 28 April 2021.
  10. ↑ Oral evidence - Home Office, 28 April 2021.
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