British Far-Right Extremists 'As Much of a Threat to Britain as Isis Recruits', says Home Office Official

Britain is as much at risk from far-right extremists at home as it is from Isis jihadist militants, a senior Home Office adviser has warned.

The anonymous official said the government should not ignore the threat of violence from right-wing extremists who are growing in number in the wake of Islamic State terrorism and crimes involving Muslims in Britain.

He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme on Thursday that the government is putting an emphasis on the "global jihadist agenda" while possibly ignoring the growth of the far-right at home.

He said: "I have been working with people from the far-right for about 27 years now, I can see increases in some of these groups and membership in some of these groups based on things that are happening nationally here and internationally.

"A lot of the emphasis is put on the global jihadist agenda, which is fine, and it needs to be, but I really feel that this agenda, the repercussions of some of that in terms of the far-right can't be ignored."

The adviser warned about the prospect of a violent attack being carried out by the far-right on the streets of Britain that could have been prevented.

"I wouldn't want to get to the point where something happens and we look back and think actually we should have addressed that as well", he added.

The expert told the Today programme he had met with a Briton who expressed desires to put everyone who is not white British into Nazi-style death camps.

He said: "I had one person who said he would like to implement death camps here in the UK and when I asked who he would like to put in the death camps, he just listed everyone that he didn't see as white British.

"So that was every Asian person, every black person."

Labour former communities secretary Hazel Blears said today the government needs to better support the Muslim majority who condemn Islamist extremism.

Blears called on ministers to put more emphasis on anti-extremism programmes such as Prevent, and bring different communities together.