Prevention and Suppression of Terrorism

Joanna Cherry Excerpts

Wednesday 15th July 2020 Commons Chamber

[Joanna Cherry (Edinburgh South West) (SNP)]

I start by thanking the Minister for the advance discussions that we have had about this matter.

The Scottish National party abhors all forms of terrorism and we consider it very important that this Parliament is alive to the risks posed by the far right and white supremacists. We must never forget that one of our own number was murdered by a far-right racist terrorist only four years ago and I pay tribute to the memory of Jo Cox. The risks from these far-right groups persist. During the evidence session of the Committee on the Counter-Terrorism and Sentencing Bill, on which I served, the Independent Reviewer of Terrorist Legislation, Jonathan Hall QC, stated that

“an increasing number of quite young people are being caught up in terrorism, including new forms of terrorism—not just conventional Islamist, extremist or right-wing terrorism, but other new emerging forms, such as the incel movement, or even things at the very boundaries of what you might consider to be terrorism that are very violent.”––[Official Report, Counter-Terrorism and Sentencing Bill Public Bill Committee, 25 June 2020; c. 10, Q15.]

I think his warning was well made. The group that the Government seek to proscribe today seems to fall into the categories that Jonathan Hall warned us to be particularly alive to.

On the basis of what the Government have said, the SNP is satisfied that the statutory test for proscription is met and that the Home Secretary in this instance is doing the right thing in the exercise of her discretion. The Government have our support on this matter.