Teenagers lured into extremist ideology

NEO-NAZIS ON THE RISE

- Matthew Davis

A RECORD number of schoolchildren have been pulled into a scheme to tackle far-Right extremism.

The Government's Channel project was set up to identify people seen to be at risk of being drawn into terrorism and divert them away from violence and hate.

It was initially created to help pinpoint potential Islamist terrorists. But now the programme's statistics show it spots a greater number of potential far-Right risks.

Last year there were 339 people brought into Channel because of fears over Right-wing extremist views. Of these 131 were children aged 14 or younger - up from 33 five years ago.

There were 133 youngsters aged 15 to 20 brought into the scheme because of concerns, compared to just 54 in 2017.