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Politicians, academics, artists and journalists are self-censoring on a large scale due to “serious levels of harassment and abuse”, according to the government’s independent adviser on social cohesion.
Dame Sara Khan will warn of a culture of fear haunting British public life in a report to be published on Monday, and urge the Government to do more to tackle it.
Khan’s findings will fuel the already heated debate about the rise of extremism in Britain, with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak recently saying that “mob rule” is replacing democratic government.
The study addresses issues such as disinformation, extremism and intimidation, which it says have stifled free speech and debate in a range of areas of public life.
Sunak said this month that Islamists and the far right are “two sides of the same extremist coin” who hate Britain, but Khan says the government has no “cohesive strategy” to tackle the threat.
Its report contains polls that found that 76% of the public refrained from expressing their personal opinions in public for fear of experiencing freedom-restricting harassment.
Speaking to Sky News’ Trevor Phillips on Sunday, Khan said he was talking about people including “councillors, journalists, teachers and academics, those who work in the arts and culture sector”, who have felt forced to self-censor.
It said 27% of the population had experienced “life-altering consequences of restricting harassment”, with some having to take additional safety measures, move house or leave work.
It said its report “will shed light on the lack of capacity, strategy and response to the slow and insidious erosion of our democratic rights and freedoms by a wide range of actors.”
“I call on the Government to commit to a new strategic approach to help protect and preserve our democratic way of life, while harnessing the many economic, political and social benefits that social cohesion can bring to our country,” he said.
Khan wants Michael Gove, the communities secretary, to set up a new unit to oversee social cohesion and “democratic resilience” and have a five-year plan to tackle the issue.
Earlier this month Gove published a new definition of “extremism” aimed at stopping government funding or providing any support to bodies he believes are promoting “extremist ideologies”.
However, former Tory home secretaries Dame Priti Patel, Amber Rudd and Sir Sajid Javid have recently warned against politicizing extremism, while Sunak has been criticized for failing to return £10m to a donor to the Tory, Frank Hester, after reports emerged of “racist” comments about MP Diane Abbott. .
Gove said: “The Khan Review highlights some fundamental shortcomings in our system and clearly sets out his vision of what the Government should do to address these flaws.”
He said he would provide a full response before the summer break, but agreed that the “freedom-restricting harassment” identified by Khan must be addressed.