The Home Secretary James Cleverly has issued a statement declaring that the Jihadist group Hizb ut-Tahrir is now a proscribed organisation. It has been banned from operating in the UK just as Hamas and Hezbollah are.

This is a decision that I soundly applaud but it is one that should have been made years and years ago. Hizb ut-Tahrir are an avowed Jihadist group and according to Wikipedia have already been banned in a number of countries including Bangladesh, China, Russia, Germany, Indonesia, Kazakhstan and other Central Asian countries. The group is also banned from operating in nearly all Middle Eastern nations with the exception of Lebanon, Yemen and the UAE.

Since the founding of Hizb ut-Tahrir by Taqi al-Din al-Nabhani in Jerusalem the group has been involved in a number of coup attempts most notably in Syria, Lebanon and Egypt. They have been extremely active in promoting Jihad and Islamic extremism in the UK and their supporters have been seen at recent pro-Hamas hate marches in London calling for a jihad against Israel.

This is an extremely concerning bunch of extremist savages and a group that should never have been allowed to foment extremism in the UK. They should have been banned from the UK long ago and jumped on by the British state. Unfortunately they were not. They were allowed to fester and spread their poison across the UK.

Whilst I applaud the Tories for taking this step it’s difficult not to assume that this ban is General Election based and designed to give the Tories a pre election boost. I say that because the Tories have had ample time since 2015 and during the time when they were in Coalition with the Liberal Democrats to ban this foul group but decided not to do so. I completely understand why those who are cynically minded might point out the fact that the banning of this group is happening very close to a General Election.

I’m very pleased to see the Government moving on Hizb ut-Tahrir but it will be interesting to see if some of Britain’s more ideologically captured and bent police forces such as the Metropolitan Police actually enforce this law. This banning is a step in the right direction but it should have been done earlier than this.