Community Engagement Principles and Extremism Definition

Debate between Lord Khan of Burnley and Viscount Brookeborough

Wednesday 22nd January 2025 Lords Chamber

[Viscount Brookeborough (CB)]

My Lords, will the Minister consider that there are a lot of good lessons to be learned from Northern Ireland on community relations? Those relations have come on a great deal, and that is often about creating neutral spaces and reasons for communities to come together that are not related to being extreme or not getting on. It is about getting people on the fringes of those extremists to enjoy life together for other reasons—and that may be sport or art—on neutral ground. Often, when you target people to bring them together, those people naturally resist being brought together, so it is about doing it from ground level up, and doing it because people want to enjoy doing things together.

[Lord Khan of Burnley (Lab)]

My Lords, the noble Lord made some interesting points. On the initial point about community relations, I reassure him that that is very important, and it is why counter-extremism has gone back into the Home Office. In my department, I am the Minister responsible for cohesion. We work with different communities to ensure, up and down the country, we hear those diverse voices, not just faith-based voices but from different communities, different diasporas and different parts of the country. So I reassure the noble Lord that this work is happening and we are working with our partners and across the country.