MORE money will be put into the government’s controversial Prevent “anti-extremism strategy” in the wake of the Manchester bombing, Home Secretary Amber Rudd announced yesterday.

In a snap decision following the Manchester stadium bombing atrocity on Tuesday, Ms Rudd said that there would be an “uplift” after next month for the programme — which has been repeatedly criticised by human rights and Islamic organisations as ineffective and systemically racist.

Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham has previously stated his opposition to an expansion of Prevent, saying last year that it was “a policy felt to be highly discriminatory against one section of the community” and “so toxic I think it has got to go.”

Seeking to justify the measure on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Ms Rudd said: “There is an industry out there that doesn’t like Prevent.

“But I can tell you that 150 people were stopped, because of Prevent, from travelling to Syria last year — 50 were children.”

She added: “I have been proposing and we will be going ahead with an uplift in Prevent.” Asked if this meant more money, she said: “Absolutely.”

Labour’s manifesto promises to review Prevent for its effectiveness and its “potential to alienate minority communities” while the Tories are pledging to “defeat extremism” but have failed to detail a legal definition for it.

Ms Rudd confirmed that 22-year-old attacker Salman Abedi was known to british intelligence services “up to a point.”