An adviser to Attorney General Lord Hermer has warned Labour’s official definition of Islamophobia could deter police from investigating Muslim offenders.
Free speech could also be restricted by the introduction of a non-statutory definition of Islamophobia, according to barrister Tom Cross KC, a member of a panel that acts for the Attorney General in complex cases.
A legal opinion by Mr Cross, commissioned by the Free Speech Union, said it was ‘reasonable’ to suppose such a definition would ‘be relied on in objecting to the use of powers by the police and security services to investigate persons who happen to be Muslim for criminal offences’.
It could include offences ‘of the most serious violent or sexual nature’, he added.
The KC’s legal opinion went on to say that an official Islamophobia definition could be used to rewrite harassment and hate crime laws.
