Dr Jessica White

Dr Jessica White, acting director of terrorism and conflict studies at the Royal United Services Institute thinktank, who has researched infiltration by far-right groups in the British military, warned that there are “vulnerabilities” in the system. “The vetting process is lacking in a lot of ways. It was very much based on a personal declaration of political beliefs and affiliations. So if you’re not going to tick ‘yes’ in the box, there isn’t necessarily a secondary check – they take people’s word on it.”

RUSI's Dr Jessica White said: "Trump succeeded in motivating a specific target group to vote anyway. Not from a traditional political point of view, but rather as a cultural counter-movement."

Dr Jessica White, acting director of terrorism and conflict studies at the RUSI defence and security think, said far right activity had fuelled the July riots. “Obviously not everyone who went out and participated in [the U.K.’s] riots was a violent extremist, but if they have a lowered resilience to the ideas that might form the basis of those violent extremist ideologies, it’s much easier for them to get swept up by far-right motivators,” she said. “I think that’s where, perhaps over the last couple of years, there has been less willingness to be to look at that sort of dynamic.”