Security Minister Tom Tugendhat Tells MPs ‘Soft Bigotry’ May Create Tolerance for Islamist Extremism

Britain's Minister of State for Security Tom Tugendhat arrives to attend the first Cabinet meeting under the new Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak in 10 Downing Street, London, on Oct. 26, 2022. Niklas Halle'n/AFP via Getty Images

Security minister Tom Tugendhat has said the “bigotry of low expectations” may be to blame for under-reporting of concerns about Islamist extremism to the UK government’s Prevent programme.

Tugendhat told Parliament’s Home Affairs Select Committee on Wednesday that a kind of “soft bigotry” is enabling tolerance for Islamist extremism “in a way that there quite rightly shouldn’t be for extreme right-wing extremism.”