An
investigation commissioned by former Prime Minister David Cameron
into the revenue streams behind jihadist groups operating in Britain
may never be published, the Home Office has admitted.
The inquiry
is thought to focus on British ally Saudi Arabia, which has
repeatedly been highlighted by European leaders as a funding source
for Islamist extremists, and may prove politically and legally
sensitive, the Guardian reports. The UK has close ties with Saudi
Arabia. Prime Minister Theresa May visited the country earlier this
year.
In January
2016, a specialist Home Office unit was directed by Downing Street to
investigate sources of overseas funding of extremist groups in the
UK. The findings were to be shown to Cameron’s then-Home Secretary
May.
Eighteen
months later, however, the Home Office told the Guardian the report
had not been completed and would not necessarily be published,
calling the contents “very sensitive.” A decision on the future
of the investigation would be taken “after the election by the
next government,” a spokesperson said.
Cameron was
urged to launch an investigation in December 2015 as part of a deal
with the Liberal Democrats in exchange for the party supporting the
extension of British airstrikes against Islamic State (IS, formerly
ISIS/ISIL) from Iraq into Syria.
According to
the Guardian, Tom Brake, the Lib Dem foreign affairs spokesperson,
has written to the prime minister asking her to confirm that the
investigation will not be shelved.
“As
home secretary at the time, your department was one of those reading
the report. Eighteen months later, and following two horrific
terrorist attacks by British-born citizens, that report still remains
incomplete and unpublished,” Brake wrote. “It is no secret
that Saudi Arabia in particular provides funding to hundreds of
mosques in the UK, espousing a very hard line Wahhabist
interpretation of Islam. It is often in these institutions that
British extremism takes root.”
Lib Dem
leader Tim Farron said he felt the government had not held up its
side of the bargain. The report must be published when it is
completed, he said, even if its contents are sensitive. “That
short-sighted approach needs to change. It is critical that these
extreme, hardline views are confronted head on, and that those who
fund them are called out publicly.”
“If the
Conservatives are serious about stopping terrorism on our shores,
they must stop stalling and reopen investigation into foreign funding
of violent extremism in the UK.”
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