SIR – Few doubt the need for a firm, intelligent counter-terrorism policy. But many are anxious that the Government’s current response risks going seriously off-track.

The stated goal of ministers – to tackle “extremism in all its forms” – casts the net so wide that almost anyone could fall into it, as illustrated recently by situations involving the Green MP Caroline Lucas and the secularist Maryam Namazie.

Extremism Disruption Orders (EDOs) in the forthcoming counter-extremism Bill look set to rely on a test of extremism that threatens the very democracy they are meant to protect. Many people will fall foul of EDOs and, as the former head of MI5 has said, “harmless evangelicals” could be among them.

Evangelicals like William Wilberforce, Lord Shaftesbury and Josephine Butler, though revered now, faced many malicious accusations during their lifetimes. Today Christians can be labelled “extremists” by those who disagree with Christianity. For some such people, EDOs will be a gift. For the Church, they will be a disaster.

Rev Tony Jones

Senior Minister, Christchurch, Durham