ABSTRACT
This chapter explores Luton’s role as the birthplace of the English Defence League and how local practitioners within the police service, the local authority and wider partners have developed responses to the movement engaging in street protest activity in the town. Supported by interviews with police officers and local authority representatives it provides unique insights into the tactics employed and explores the dynamics between local statutory agencies working in partnership in response to English Defence League activity. It concludes that Luton’s status as a Prevent Priority Area did not yield a more developed response to right-wing extremism. Except for the Channel programme, there was very little evidence of targeted engagement with white working-class communities, the development of specific counter narratives or funding of projects to counter right-wing extremism in the town. Despite its heritage, the English Defence League is framed as an external threat to the town, raising challenges around deficits of political representation within the local authority, coupled with a lack of will to engage with the issues that underpin the narratives used by the movement.
