Thousands in Britain may be on the path to 'violent extremism', Home Secretary warns, as she slams the BBC for giving airtime to 'disgusting' hate preacher Anjem Choudary.

Thousands in Britain may be on the path to 'violent extremism', Home Secretary warns, as she slams the BBC for giving airtime to 'disgusting' hate preacher Anjem Choudary.(DailyMail).

Thousands of people living in Britain could be 'on the path' to becoming violent radicals and terrorists, the Home Secretary said today.

Theresa May gave the warning as she confirmed a fresh crackdown on extremist groups who could be a threat to national security. The senior Tory also used an interview on the BBC's Andrew Marr Show to criticise the Corporation for interviewing radical cleric Anjem Choudary. 

He was given star billing on a discussion panel with Newsnight presenter Kirsty Wark, as he insisted he was not a ‘hate preacher’ or Islamic extremist.

Refusing to condemn the killers of Lee Rigby, the British drummer crushed by a vehicle and then hacked to death with machetes, Choudary even suggested that ‘one man killed in a street’ was hardly proper vengeance for those killed by ‘Britain and the U.S.’ in wars overseas. 

Mrs May said: 'I think Anjem Choudary has disgusting views and I think it is right that we look at how those views are being presented and I think there were many people who did indeed say "What is the BBC doing interviewing Anjem Choudary?" 

After his appearance two days ago, the BBC was branded 'idiotic' and 'insensitive'.

Asked if she believed there were thousands at risk of radicalisation in the UK, she replied 'potentially'. 'We have people at different points on what could be the path to violent extremism,' she said. She added that the Government 'Prevent' scheme designed to reduce radicalism in Britain had spoken to 2,000 people at risk in the past year, particularly in prison.Read the full story here.