Government efforts to prevent the radicalisation of British Muslims have been set back by Israel’s assault on Gaza, the security and counter-terrorism minister, Lord West of Spithead, announced yesterday.
In an outspoken assessment of the terror risk facing Britain, Gordon Brown’s security adviser was scathing about the assertion, made by Tony Blair when prime minister, that foreign policy did not alter the UK’s risk of a terror attack.
“We never used to accept that our foreign policy ever had any effect on terrorism,” he said. “Well, that was clearly bollocks.”
He added: “They [the Blair administration] were very unwilling to have any debate about how our foreign policy impacted on radicalisation.”