CAMPAIGNERS have urged caution after Home Secretary Priti Patel suggested reforms to Prevent were “definitely” on the cards in the wake of Sir David Amess’s murder. 

The Home Secretary said that when the ongoing review into the government’s counter-terrorism strategy is concluded, “there will definitely be things that need to change.”

It comes after Ali Harbi Ali was handed a whole life sentence last week for murdering Sir David, the Tory MP for Southend West, at his constituency office in September 2021. 

He had previously been referred to Prevent in 2014 but was found by the panel not to be a threat. Mr Ali said he targeted the MP because he had voted in Parliament for air strikes on Syria in 2014 and 2015. 

The delayed independent review, headed by William Shawcross, the former chairman of the Charity Commission, is thought to be published in the coming months. 

But campaigners argue that an overhaul of the counter-terrorism strategy will fail to address the root causes of violence. 

Anas Mustapha, head of public advocacy at Cage, which has long argued that Prevent fosters discrimination against Muslims, said: “The government ought to examine its role in maintaining cycles of violence, and driving alienation of minorities at home through draconian domestic policies and endangering Britain by escalating wars of devastation abroad. 

“The first step towards that begins by abolishing Prevent.”

Les Levidow of the Campaign Against Criminalising Communities (CAMPACC) warned that a tightening of the programme would “more brutally persecute Muslims while doing little to prevent violent attacks.”