The Government’s plans to counter extremism are seriously flawed and could create a ‘thought police’ in the UK, according to a prominent police chief.

Simon Cole, who heads up the Government’s own anti-radicalisation programme, Prevent, told the Guardian in an interview that he did not think the proposals were enforceable.

He warned the plans would also risk turning police officers into judges of “what people can and can not say”.

Cole also said other senior police chiefs had concerns as opposition to the Government’s extremism proposals continues to mount.

He said: “Unless you define what extremism is very clearly then it’s going to be a really challenging to enforce. We don’t want to be the thought police, we absolutely don’t want to be the thought police.”

The day before the counter Extremism and Safeguarding Bill was announced in the Queen’s Speech, a Home Office spokesman told the Times that “Getting agreement about the thresholds for what constitutes extremism and what needs to be protected as free speech is not going to be easy or straightforward.”

CARE is one of a number of organisations deeply concerned by the Government’s proposals to tackle extremism.

In April, the charity signed a joint statement with four other leading Christian charities to express the concerns about potential implications for religious freedom and free speech.

Image taken from the Guardian website