Factsheet: Policy Exchange

IMPACT: Policy Exchange is a highly influential British right-wing conservative think-tank, which identifies itself as an educational charity with a mission to “develop and promote new policy ideas which deliver better public services, a stronger society and a more dynamic economy.” It has a history of making anti-Muslim claims, including spreading harmful narratives linking Islam to terrorism, advocating against the adoption of a legal definition of Islamophobia by the government, perpetuating Islamophobic stereotypes, and making sweeping, harmful generalizations about Muslims and their beliefs.

Policy Exchange was founded in 2002 by Conservative Members of Parliament Francis Maude and Archie Norman, along with Nick Boles, who later became a Conservative MP. In 2002, Boles became the organization’s first Director. The current Director of Policy Exchange is Dean Aaron Godson, who is also a member of the UK House of Lords, with Julia Mizen serving as Managing Director.

Policy Exchange has been integral to shaping British narratives about Islam and extremism in Britain since 2005. According to a December 2024 piece in Hyphen, the organization has long taken a hardline stance on issues such as security and crime, but it began linking its ideas to Islam after the London terror attacks in 2005. Previously, it had suggested that the sources of terrorism were varied and rooted in political or economic grievances, but since 2005, it began linking terrorism to immigration, multiculturalism and Islam. Following 2005, according to scholar and author Arun Kundnani, Policy Exchange’s philosophy was that British Muslims failed to integrate into British society, creating a social and cultural separation that leads to extremism. The narrative became that social integration was tied to national security, resulting in the securitization of socio-cultural issues. 

In their 2007 report, “Living Apart Together,” Policy Exchange claimed that efforts to combat discrimination were doing more harm than good. The report asked “why some British-born Muslims have become attracted to Islamic fundamentalism and the different social and cultural factors that give credence to such ideas.” The report also noted a shift towards the “Islamicisation” of identity in Europe, citing examples of young Muslims embracing their religious identity and practicing their faith: “increased wearing of headscarves amongst Muslim women; greater cultural identification with transnational Muslim identity – the ummah; growing membership of Islamist political groups and youth associations…and greater demands by Muslim groups for sharia-compliant education, and financial and legal frameworks. Many more young Muslims are…going on pilgramage to Mecca, which is considered to be a duty for all Muslims before they die.” The report describes these instances of Islamic faith practices and identity, defined as an “aggressive, anti-Western strain of Islamism,” as a security and cultural problem. The report’s conclusion calls for “intellectual debate and persuasion” against the “cultural trends” identified to reduce the threat of terrorism. Essentially, the report argues that greater observation of Islamic religious practices is an indicator of extremism and terrorism: an argument that is rooted in Islamophobia. 

Additionally, in 2015, Policy Exchange published a report, “The Hijacking of British Islam: How extremist literature is subverting mosques in the UK,” which claimed to have uncovered the sale of extremist literature at British mosques. However, BBC2’s Newsnight found evidence of fabricated data after investigating receipts used in the report. Despite the evidence, Godson stood by the report and its findings “100%.” 

This targeting of Islamic practices and cultural values in the fight against terror became a long-lasting approach of Policy Exchange. In his 2022 book, The Fate of Abraham: Why the West is Wrong about Islam, Peter Oborne, former chief political commentator of The Daily Telegraph, wrote that in its 2009 report, “Policy Exchange was urging that Muslims should be obliged to sign up to a set of beliefs that fell within a state prescribed remit. In order to become British, Muslims were being asked to deny, or at least modify, their own identity and heritage.” Oborne explained that the shift away from targeting “violent extremism” to just “extremism” and “non-violent radicals” pressured British Muslims to assimilate and abandon their cultural and religious identities.

In a 2023 report, “The Symbolic Power of the Veil,” Policy Exchange provided policy recommendations regarding the hijab. The report advocates for legislation that permits British schools to ban full-face veils such as the niqab. Additionally, it argues that the “government should refrain from publicly endorsing or promoting any specific religious attire, including events such as World Hijab Day.” World Hijab Day aims to dismantle bigotry, discrimination and prejudice against Muslim women through education, awareness and empowerment. Policy Exchange writes that the “government should resist any call to ‘promote’ the hijab ‘as a symbol of education, freedom and integration to counter stereotypes of backwardness, oppression, isolation and extremism.’” 

In response to this report, Zara Mohammed, the then-Muslim Council of Britain’s Secretary-General, said Policy Exchange was steering the country “down a slippery slope reminiscent of France’s controversial approach to policing what Muslim women wear.” Mohammed also critiqued the fact that the calls to action in the report were written by a man, MP Khalid Mahmood, noting that he made “sweeping generalisations about Muslim women’s clothing, an area in which he lacks expertise, inadvertently perpetuating harmful gender stereotypes that we should actively challenge.”

Policy Exchange has been a staunch supporter and key influencer of the UK’s Prevent program, which critics have noted effectively renders all Muslims potential criminals. A December 2024 piece in Hyphen notes that shortly after David Cameron became Prime Minister in 2010, a revised version of Prevent reflected much of Policy Exchange’s talking points, demonstrating the think tank’s close relationship and influence with elected officials. The new policy expanded to include non-violent extremism, defined vaguely as views against “British values.” This revision increased surveillance of Muslim individuals and further institutionalized Islamophobia. Policy Exchange’s April 2022 report “Deligitimising Counter-Terrorism” accuses critics of the Prevent policy of “enabling terrorism.” The report argues that those campaigning against Prevent criticize all counter-terrorism policy, calling on the need for the development of tools to help the government “properly push back against campaigners.” It is important to note that rights organizations and a UN expert have called for Prevent to be abandoned.

In November 2018, the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on British Muslims released a report that provided a definition on Islamophobia following two years of consultation. They presented the following definition: “Islamophobia is rooted in racism and is a type of racism that targets expressions of Muslimness or perceived Muslimness.” Following the release of the report, Muslim organizations called on party leaders to adopt the proposed working definition of Islamophobia in an effort to combat anti-Muslim discrimination. Policy Exchange criticized the proposed definition as an infringement on free speech and argued that the word “Islamophobia” itself discouraged debate within Muslim communities.

Policy Exchange also voiced its opposition to the development of an official Islamophobia definition following the revival of the Rotherham grooming scandal, first uncovered in 2012. The scandal involved the failure of law enforcement and social services regarding Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE), as a 2014 government inquiry revealed the systemic sexual abuse and exploitation of over 1,000 children mostly by men of Pakistani heritage. In 2016, a government inspector concluded that “Rotherham council’s failure to tackle child sexual exploitation has fuelled far-right sentiment and led to an increase in Islamophobia in the town.” Policy Exchange argued that the term “Islamophobia” had been “directly used to attack those who sought to expose the Rotherham grooming scandal.” Policy Exchange argued that the term does not seek to stop anti-Muslim hatred, but to create special protections for one’s faith.

In the years following the Rotherham grooming scandal, several right-wing organizations, along with media outlets, have used the issue to advance anti-Muslim stereotypes, insinuating that the issue of CSE is uniquely present amongst Pakistani-Muslim communities. However, in 2020, a Home Office report concluded that “there is no credible evidence that any one ethnic group is over-represented in cases of child sexual exploitation.” Additionally, Home Office researchers found that “group-based offenders are most commonly White”. In 2023, the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) and experts on grooming gangs “warned ministers against framing the issue as one based on ethnicity, warning that this could hamper efforts to tackle a crime.” In a January 2025 piece, Professor Tahir Abbas noted that “While the sexual exploitation of vulnerable children is undeniably abhorrent, the narrative surrounding it has often been clouded by sensationalism, racial stereotyping, and political agendas.”

In addition to its research and political ideology, several of Policy Exchange’s employees have expressed anti-Muslim beliefs and are connected to other anti-Muslim organizations.

Founder Nick Boles served as Minister of State for Skills from 2014 to 2016. During his term, he stated Britain must stop “tiptoeing around” extremism and recognize it flourishes within “certain communities.” While claiming it would be “upsetting” for certain people to be considered more likely to be engaged in extremism due to their race or religion, he also propagated the idea that extremists originate from specific communities. “But it is nevertheless the case that we have a very small but potentially very dangerous number of people who do fall into those dangerous ideas and practices,” he said. “Most of them come from particular religious and ethnic groups and we do have to tackle that as a Government.”

In a 2010 debate in the Commons Chamber on UK policy on the Middle East, Boles emphasized his support for Israel and scapegoated neighboring Arab Muslim countries for Israeli occupation and violence. “So let us be clear: for all its errors and excesses, which I and the whole House see, Israel is an oasis in a desert—an oasis of freedom, democracy and human rights in the Middle East,” he said. “We therefore have to ask ourselves, why does Israel do those things that shock, pain and worry us all? Why does it feel driven to inflict on the people of Gaza what we all recognise, whether in law or not, as seemingly like collective punishment?” Boles continued, “The answer is very simple: it is not just faced but encircled by an enemy that wishes to destroy it.”

Current Policy Exchange Director Aaron Godson expressed his views on Islam’s presence in Britain in a 2022 debate in the House of Lords after the Trojan Horse Affair. The Trojan Horse Affair refers to the developments in Britain after a mysterious letter was left on a city councillor’s desk in Birmingham outlining a plan by Islamic extremists to infiltrate the local schools. The letter was later proven to be a hoax, but it still triggered a nationwide panic. After the New York Times published a podcast investigating the affair and its falsehood, British politicians doubled down on their Islamophobia. Godson asked the government, “what steps they are taking to prevent extremism and intolerance from gaining a foothold in schools in England.”

In a 2022 report, Policy Exchange released a report, titled “Delegitimising Counter-Terrorism,” in which the organization condemned civil society organizations such as MEND, Cage, the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB), and the Federation of Student Islamic Societies, accusing them of having extremist ties and undermining social cohesion. In a 2022 Bridge article, Mobashra Tazamal writes that “Policy Exchange’s anti-Muslim agenda is clear and visible: it exclusively vilifies Muslim organizations, labeling them as “Islamist” and “extremist,” sending a clear signal to the public that they are somehow tied to terrorism. These unsubstantiated accusations are dangerous smears that inevitably sow fear within the Muslim community. Policy Exchange’s report seeks to blacklist individuals and groups who aim to hold the government accountable when it comes to policies that stigmatize millions of British Muslims.”

Trevor Phillips is a current Senior Fellow at Policy Exchange, and was previously suspended from the Labour Party in 2020 after making Islamophobic comments. In the suspension letter, the Labour Party cited his comments about UK Muslims being “a nation within a nation,” among other remarks. Phillips was readmitted to the party without apology or acknowledgement—a move many British Muslims saw as dismissive of them. Phillips has also argued that it is correct and fair to judge Muslims collectively, saying “the truth is, if you do belong to a group, whether it is a church, or a football club, you identify with a particular set of values, and you stand for it. And frankly you are judged by that.”

Phillips is also a co-author of Policy Exchange’s 2019 report, “On Islamophobia.” The report responds to the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on British Muslims’ advocacy for the British government to adopt a formal definition of Islamophobia. Phillips and co-authors advise against such a measure, advising policymakers that adopting a legal definition of Islamophobia “would be a mistake.”

Phillips’ ideologies have also created distrust in his ability to serve in politics. In 2020, Phillips was appointed to an inquiry into why Black, Asian, and minority ethnic people (BAME) were disproportionately impacted by COVID-19. According to the Guardian, his appointment undermined the inquiry’s credibility among the very populations it was meant to serve. In an open letter signed by 100 Black women, Phillips is described as “discarding the very real issues and consequences of structural racism.” The Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) also criticized his appointment. Baroness Sayeeda Warsi, a campaigner against Islamophobia in the Conservative party and its former Chairman, and Simon Woolley, the founder and director of Operation Black Vote, wrote in the Guardian that Phillips’ biggest challenge in the inquiry would be credibility. 

Another employee who has made anti-Muslim remarks is Paul Stott, the current Head of Security and Extremism at Policy Exchange. He is a frequent writer and commentator on terrorism, “Islamism”, and the political fringe. In April 2022, Miqdaad Versi, the media spokesperson for the MCB, accused Stott of engaging in “racist rhetoric.”In line with Policy Exchange’s organizational stance, Scott is a vocal critic of advocacy efforts for a legal definition of Islamophobia in the UK. In a 2024 piece for Reaction titled “Labour must define ‘Islamophobia’ very carefully,” Scott wrote that such a definition would “risk undermining” individual freedoms by shielding interpretations of Islam from criticism. In 2022, Scott co-authored Policy Exchange’s report, “The Trojan Horse Affair: a Documentary Record.” Responding to the scandal, Scott and co-author provide a list of policy recommendations in the report. They call for the government to consider investigating the impact of fears of being labeled “Islamophobic” or “racist” on reporting by teachers of incidents of extremism. They also recommend that the government considers reviewing school guidance relating to religious and cultural accommodations, arguing that it should clearly articulate what religious and cultural influences are “appropriate” and which are “inappropriate” at school. A December 2022 piece in The New Arab, teacher and author Nadeine Asbali concluded that Policy Exchange’s report on The Trojan Horse Affair was “overflowing with anti-Muslim sentiment disguised as objective fact. From the Muslim Council of Britain being dismissed as an “Islamist” outlet to the assertion that sex-based segregation and the call to prayer being played in schools is evidence of an Islamist takeover.”

Policy Exchange also has discreet connections to other anti-Muslim organizations like the Henry Jackson Foundation (HJF) and the Centre for Social Cohesion (which merged into HJF in 2011). The groups promote similar discriminatory rhetoric about Muslims, Islam, and extremism and share employees. Former HJF Associate Director, Douglas Murray, is known for his advocacy against Muslim immigration to Europe and has condemned the idea that Islam is a religion of peace. Former Co-Head of Security and Extremism at Policy Exchange, Hannah Stuart, was a previous Senior Research Fellow at HJF. Stuart is now Director of the Counter Extremism Group.

The organization’s work isn’t limited to the United Kingdom, as it has produced reports on other countries. In October 2022, Policy Exchange published a report titled “Grasping the nettle: The Austrian State and Islamism,” written by Sir John Jenkins and Clarisse Pásztory. The report speaks positively of the Austrian government’s efforts to “challenge Islamism”.  The authors note that Austria’s targeting of the Muslim community offers “important case studies for the ways in which the liberal state can counter those who deny the fundamental principles on which it has been built – recognising that it cannot simply be ‘neutral’ in the face of that challenge.” The report repeated lies invented by the Austrian Ministry of Interior, which claimed to have seized “over 20 million EUR in cash” in the largest unlawful crackdown on Muslim civil society called Operation Luxor, described as a “nation-wide security operation” by Policy Exchange. The report also highlights claims made by Lorenzo Vidino, including smearing Austrian Muslims by calling them “Islamists.” In January 2021, Jenkins wrote a piece on the opening of the Documentation Center for the Study of Political Islam established by the Austrian government, noting that it “complements Policy Exchange’s own studies.” The Center’s academic advisory board hosts several experts who hold anti-Muslim views.

In 2016, Transparify, an organization providing ratings of the financial transparency of major think tanks, ranked Policy Exchange as one of the most opaque think tanks in the United Kingdom. The Transparify report listed Policy Exchange among three other think tanks that refuse to reveal the identities of even their donors. Transparify was unable to uncover who funds their advocacy and research. The report listed these think tanks as the few left in the UK still considering it “acceptable to take money from hidden hands behind closed doors.”

In 2022, Layla Aitlhadj, a director at Prevent Watch, and John Holmwood, emeritus professor in sociology at the University of Nottingham, authored a complaint to the UK Charities Commission calling on the government to review Policy Exchange’s charity status for “promoting vilification and even hatred” towards Muslims. “As a charity, Policy Exchange must remain non-partisan and be detached from government. Yet it would appear Policy Exchange is neither, acting primarily as a vehicle for political propaganda and anti-Muslim narratives,” said Aitlhadj.