Britain's Home Secretary Amber Rudd has launched a campaign to find a Lead Commissioner for Countering Extremism on Sunday, two days after the UK suffered its fifth terror attack in a year.
The Commission’s remit is to identify extremism wherever it presents itself and advise the British government on new policies and was set up in the wake of the Manchester bombing in May.
Mrs Rudd made the announcement as police revealed they had arrested a second man in connection with Friday’s explosion on the London underground, which left 30 people injured.
"This government is committed to tackling extremism in all its forms – as the Prime Minister said after the London Bridge attack earlier this year, enough is enough," Mrs Rudd wrote in a press release posted on the Home Office's website.
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“The new Commission for Countering Extremism will have a key role to play in this fight. It will identify and challenge tolerance of extremism, tackle extremist ideology and promote British values, learning the lessons from the struggle against racism in the twentieth century.
“The Lead Commissioner will head up this vital work and I look forward to working with the successful candidate.”
Outside the UK, Prime Minister Theresa May pledged to confront web giants such as Google and Facebook to do more to reduce the spread of terror over the internet.
In an interview with American channel ABC, Mrs May said she would make contact with internet companies when she travels to the United States this week for the United Nations General Assembly.
"It is pure speculation" - UK Home Secretary Amber Rudd on Donald Trump's tweets about London Tube bomb https://t.co/ZDRX8oBjSQ pic.twitter.com/WsVYLxkhhA
— BBC News (UK) (@BBCNews) September 17, 2017
Meanwhile on Sunday, Mrs Rudd rebuked US President Donald Trump for his Twitter response hours after the attack, in which he appeared to claim that those involved were already known to Scotland Yard.
The home secretary dismissed the tweet as “pure speculation” in an interview with the BBC, explaining: “It’s never helpful to have speculation about an ongoing operation and I would include the president of the United States in that comment.”
