London - Universities will have to ban hate preachers from speaking on campus under a crackdown unveiled on Monday by Theresa May.
Schools, colleges, prisons and councils will also be ordered to put in place anti-extremism policies to stop vulnerable youngsters being exposed to Islamist fanatics, Britain’s Home Secretary said.
The draconian powers are part of a sweeping package of measures to tackle the growing threat of jihadists determined to bring bloodshed to the UK’s streets.
In a keynote speech, May said the threat to Britain from fanatics was “greater than it had ever been” and warned an attack by extremists returning from Syria and Iraq was “highly likely”.
If the Tories win the next election she pledged to reintroduce the Communications Data Bill - dubbed a “snoopers’ charter” by opponents - which would require internet companies to keep records of every website their customers visit. MI5, MI6 and GCHQ insist they need extra powers to track down terrorists, crime gangs and paedophiles on the web. Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg has blocked the proposal, saying it would be a breach of civil liberties.
May used her speech at the Royal United Services Institute think-tank in London to outline measures that will be included in the Counter-Terrorism and Security Bill, to be published on Wednesday.
She denied the new laws were a “knee-jerk response to a sudden perceived threat” and said the police had foiled 40 terrorist attacks since the July 7 bombings in London in 2005.
“It is a properly considered, thought-through set of proposals that will keep us safe at a time of very significant danger,” she said.
Her flagship bill will for the first time place a statutory duty on public bodies to stop people from being radicalised.
A university that refused to stop a planned talk or visit by a radical cleric could be ordered to do so by ministers - or face being taken to courts. The new counter-terror law would include powers to:
- Stop jihadists coming back to Britain from Syria for up to two years - their return being allowed only “on our terms”;
- Order internet companies to keep data that helps to identify the user of an individual computer or mobile phone;
- Make it an offence for insurance firms to foot the bill for ransom payments to extremist groups;
- Allow border guards to seize the passports and tickets of suspected extremists for up to 30 days;
- Forcibly relocate terror suspects, or put them into internal exile.
Campaigners criticised the measures. Shami Chakrabarti, of human rights group Liberty, said: “Yet again, politicians resort to high talk and rushed legislation in an attempt to look tough in the face of terrorism. Another chilling recipe for injustice and resentment by closing down the open society you seek to promote.”
Earlier, Britain’s chief counter-terrorism police officer warned the threat from jihadists would last for many years to come, even if violence in Iraq and Syria subsided.
Mark Rowley, an assistant commissioner at Scotland Yard, said: “Even if the awfulness that’s happening in Syria and Iraq was miraculously to get sorted in the next year or so - and that looks a very optimistic “if” - there are other countries which are in parlous states and the potential for this type of terrorism to reach back into Europe and continue in other theatres is equally great.”
Meanwhile, an extremist Muslim preacher has been banned from a university campus for likening being gay to having a “disease”.
Imran Ibn Mansur, 24, was due to appear at an event at the University of East London but the whole event was called off amid further concerns that male and female students would be segregated.
Daily Mail