by Steven Edgington, Spectator
One year ago, Charlie Kirk was shot dead; the British government immediately got to work. Following Kirk’s murder, the Research, Information and Communications Unit (RICU), a UK government counter-extremism and anti-terrorism unit, began monitoring thousands of social media channels, gauging the reaction of what they describe as “Extreme Right-Wing” (ERW) activists.
Published here for the first time, a memo written by RICU reveals that officials assessed that “Extreme Right-Wing” activists, including Tommy Robinson, would use Kirk’s assassination to “push pro-free speech narratives.” Counter-extremism agents assessed that right-wing extremists would use Kirk’s death to “encourage more radical action” and “abandon political moderation in favor of more radical political stances.” Meanwhile, RICU characterized the left-wing online response to Kirk’s assassination as “moderate” and largely “factual reporting,” despite thousands of people celebrating the shooting. RICU’s response to Kirk’s murder has drawn criticism from prominent free speech campaigners, including the Free Speech Union, the Alliance Defending Freedom, and the US State Department.
A memo entitled “RICU Event Response: Charlie Kirk Assassination” was circulated across Whitehall, including to officials in the Home Office, Foreign Office and Cabinet Office, as well as police officers, on September 11, 2025, the day after Kirk was shot. The memo was classified as “Official Sensitive.” RICU assessed that American and British ERW audiences would present the murder as “a shared attack on the ERW movement and free speech activism more generally,” and monitored the response of Turning Point UK, the British arm of Charlie Kirk’s American organization.