Ministers have pulled funding from a counterextremism programme despite a government report finding it had prevented hundreds of thousands of people from being radicalised.
The Building a Stronger Britain Together scheme has given £60 million to community projects and workshops teaching British values since 2015, including a body in Southend that the MP Sir David Amess was involved in.
The strategy was shut down this year, forcing the closure of activities and events that ministers praised for turning youngsters away from extremism.
The revelation questions the government’s counterextremism strategy after the fatal stabbing of Amess, 69, who represented Southend West.
The together scheme was closed as part of a wider overhaul of the government’s counterextremism strategy under Priti Patel, the home secretary.
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She has scrapped the 2015 Counter-Extremism Strategy that was launched by David Cameron to prevent extremists infiltrating public institutes and charities. The Counter Extremism Unit has been closed and its personnel folded into the team that runs the Prevent scheme in the Home Office.
A source involved with the unit said the two previous Tory home secretaries had understood the importance of its work, but Patel and Boris Johnson had “failed to understand how counterextremism works”. “The reality is the home secretary and prime minister have zero interest in or understanding of counterextremism work. [Sajid] Javid and [Amber] Rudd totally got it.” The Home Office rejected such a view.
The source added: “[Stronger Britain] was a brilliant bit of work and so much has been lost now they have junked it.”
One of the projects that has had funding cut is the Southend United Community and Educational Trust. It was given £48,000 to run 18-months of integration events, British value workshops, school sessions and training for staff and pupils to spot radicalisation.
Its programmes included a dozen Prevent referrals from Essex police of people who needed specialist treatment to deradicalise them.
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Its activities included a child’s tour of a mosque and projects targeting faith groups and nationalities such as Chinese and Nepalese communities to improve their integration.
Conor McGinn, Labour’s shadow security minister, said the withdrawal of funding has come at the worst possible time.
He said: “It is astonishing that the Conservatives are effectively scrapping these key counter-extremism projects at a time when hateful and violent extremism is rapidly rising both online and on our own streets.
“After having ignored every recommendation of their very own commission set up to tackle these growing threats, this is another example of the staggering complacency that proves again that protecting the public simply is not a priority for this Conservative Government.”
The Home Office said the government was “focused on disrupting the activities and influence of extremists”.
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It said the changes were part of a revamp of the department’s strategy for fighting extremism and radicalisation in light of the changing landscape since 2015 in which more and more people have been radicalised online.
The restructure aims to shift resources to focus on groups and people who pose the biggest threat.
The Home Office said the most effective and successful projects and groups that were funded via the Britain together scheme would be brought under other “community resilience programmes” run by the Prevent scheme.
The closure of Britain together comes despite a government report in July praising its “wide-reaching” effectiveness in countering extremist narratives and improving integration.
It said most of the 290,000 people who took part in 252 Britain together-supported counterextremism projects expressed “a greater likelihood to reject and challenge narratives that oppose shared values”.
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The Home Office report said: “Most of those participating . . . funded by [the scheme] also reported a greater sense of local belonging and displayed newly acquired confidence and skills that can aid resilience against extremism.”
