A former counter-extremism chief warned the growing threat of online disinformation and misinformation creates a “permissive environment" for extremism to flourish in the UK.

Sara Khan, who led a 2024 review for the UK Government, gave evidence as the Senedd’s equality committee launched an inquiry into social cohesion on 3 March.

Dame Sara raised concerns about an “evolving and accelerated extremism landscape”, with significant growth in the far right and extreme narratives becoming “mainstreamed”.

She said: “We’re seeing, I think, quite stark warnings about growing levels of disillusionment with democracy, distrust in our democratic institutions.”

She told the committee that trust in government is at an all-time low, with falling levels of trust in the police, media and other institutions.

Dame Sara warned: “I think the UK is at serious risk of chronic democratic decline.

“What I showed in my review was that Whitehall simply does not have a strategic approach to A, measure this but B, to also prevent and respond to it.”

Committee chair Jenny Rathbone asked what action, if any, the UK Government has taken or committed to in response to the review which focused on England.

Dame Sara said she has not had any response to the report’s 15 recommendations - published in March - warning of a lack of a counter-extremism strategy since 2021.

“That’s quite concerning,” she said.

“Firstly because obviously there was the riots in the summer which affected 27 towns and cities, luckily not in Wales, but in parts of Northern Ireland and, of course, England, many of which I predicted in my report.

“There have been many examples of similar but smaller disturbances, riots [and] violent protests that have broken out.”

The former counter-extremism commissioner told the committee that the summer riots should not have been a shock to Westminster, with many early warning signs flashing.

Dame Sara raised comments from Ken McCallum, MI5’s director-general, who warned of a three-fold increase in under-18s being radicalised over the past three years.

She said: “The scale and pace of threats … – whether it’s extremism, … technological threats – threats that are seeking to undermine social cohesion, they are moving at a rapid pace and I feel the UK Government doesn’t seem to understand the seriousness.”

Dame Sara questioned whether the Online Safety Act 2023 will effectively deal with disinformation because it falls into a “legal but harmful” category.

Dame Sara said: “I think we’re going to see worsening extremism, we are definitely seeing a growing acceptance of extremist narratives in a way that we weren’t seeing 20 years ago.

“The growing threat of disinformation, misinformation … create a permissive environment for extremism to flourish, as well as disillusionment with democracy.”

“There is no doubt that social media is playing a very critical role in undermining social cohesion but I would not put it to just social media alone.

“Why do people feel that their voices are not heard?

“The idea that people's voices are only heard once every five years when there’s a general election – I just don’t think that’s good enough.”