Asked by
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of
the reporting in “The Trojan Horse Affair” podcast, published by
the New York Times on 4 February; and what steps they are taking
to prevent extremism and intolerance from gaining a foothold in
schools in England.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for
Education () (Con)
My Lords, we remain absolutely committed to keeping children safe
from extremism. We provide online resources and fund networks of
practitioners to support schools to promote shared values and
build resilience to extremism. We also take action against those
in the sector who express extremist views. The Government’s
response at the time of “Trojan horse” rightly focused on whether
the alleged events and behaviours actually happened. A number of
independent reports confirmed that they did.
(Con)
My Lords, I thank the Minister for her Answer and pay tribute to
her great diligence in having subjected herself to listening to
all eight hours of the New York Timespodcast on this subject. I
did not intend to subject her to a cruel and unusual punishment
when I originally decided to ask the Question. Will she join me
in paying tribute to the whistleblowers of all communities in
Birmingham who played their part in bringing these most important
allegations to public attention? Many of these people have been
harassed by the New York Times in the years since the revelation
of these allegations. Connected to that, will she give some sense
to the House of the progress made on the independent report
undertaken by Peter Clarke, former head of the counterterrorism
command on the Trojan horse affair at the time, and the progress
made on his 15 recommendations in this regard?
(Con)
The Government recognise the very important contribution that
whistleblowers make. We have had anonymous reporting lines since
2015 and established an online reporting system in 2021, which is
available to those working in the sector and to the general
public. I hope I can reassure my noble friend that we have made
good progress on implementing Peter Clarke’s recommendations. To
give the House some examples, we have strengthened the Ofsted
inspection framework so that its inspectors are now required to
assess how well schools protect pupils from the risks of
extremism and radicalisation, and to promote fundamental British
values. We have pursued action against those who may have
breached teacher standards and taken action against those
involved in the management of schools. We continue to assess
whether other areas of the country could be similarly vulnerable,
and we have a dedicated counterextremism function in the
department to consider allegations.
(CB)
My Lords, does the Minister agree that extremism arises from
claims that the one God of us all has human prejudices and is
more favourably disposed to our particular faith, as opposed to
others’, no matter how we behave towards others? Does she further
agree that the teaching of RE in schools should emphasise ethical
commonalities, which are much greater than the smaller area of
conflict-producing differences?
(Con)
The noble Lord asks a rather profound first question, which I
might need a bit more time to think about. On his second point,
the principles that underpin fundamental British values, which
are now taught in every school, include diversity, tolerance,
mutual respect and the rule of law.
(LD)
My Lords, the report by the independent review of the Prevent
extremism strategy was due to be submitted to the Home Office in
September. It was then put back to 31 December, and it still has
not been published. Will the Government tell us whether they have
received the report and whether they will commit to releasing the
strategy before the summer Recess to ensure that the UK’s
counterterrorism strategy is fit for purpose?
(Con)
My understanding is that the independent review of Prevent is
ongoing, and we will consider its findings in due course.
(CB)
My Lords, at least 6,000 children are being educated in
unregistered illegal schools where they are exposed to extremist,
intolerant, homophobic and sexist literature. As the Government
indicated, can the Minister confirm that legislation will be
included in the May Queen’s Speech to increase powers for Ofsted
to bring illegal schools into registration, and to introduce a
register of home-educated children, so many of whom attend
illegal schools? If not in May, then when?
(Con)
The noble Baroness will understand that I cannot anticipate the
Queen’s Speech, but I absolutely share her deep concern about the
risks faced by children who are in unregistered schools. The
Government have said that at the next legislative opportunity, we
will seek to address some of those weaknesses. I can confirm that
the Government are committed to a register for home-educated
children.
(Non-Afl)
My Lords, do the Government recall that one of the schools in the
Trojan horse scandal is actually called the Al-Hijrah School,
thus extolling not only Muhammad’s journey from Mecca to his
takeover of Medina, but his massacre there of 600 Jews in one
afternoon, after which his religion went on to conquer most of
the known world. Does not the name say it all?
(Con)
I really cannot comment on that; I will leave it to the noble
Lord to decide for himself.
(Lab)
My Lords, the safety of children is paramount and whistleblowers
often provide a very important service, but it is known that the
then Secretary of State for Education had been informed that
counterterrorism police had determined that the Trojan horse
letter was bogus. None the less, he went ahead by citing the
letter when instituting major reforms in Birmingham, through
which teachers lost their jobs and schools were closed, and
changes in national education policy resulted as well. Can the
Minister say whether the Minister in question—who is now, of
course, the Secretary of State for Levelling Up—has faced any
consequences of those actions and whether the changes he
instituted as a result will be revisited?
(Con)
I do not think that the then Secretary of State or any subsequent
Secretary of State should in any way apologise for their
relentless focus on safeguarding children and the safety of those
children. The alleged events and behaviours were confirmed in a
number of independent reviews and an independent tribunal.
(LD)
My Lords, can the Minister confirm that what was subsequently
uncovered by several Ofsted reports, two separate inquiries by
the Department for Education, Birmingham council and multiple
court judgments was that there was no organised plot but that a
small cluster of Birmingham schools, including three run by an
academy trust, suffered from a range of issues—poor governance, a
lack of child protection safeguards and a failure of leadership?
Does the Minister agree that what millions of Muslim families in
this country want most of all is for their children to have a
good education, to be integrated and not to suffer the
consequences of this incident?
(Con)
I absolutely agree with the noble Baroness that the vast majority
of Muslim families in this country want exactly what she
described. I have had the pleasure of visiting a number of
excellent faith schools of all faiths, including Muslim schools,
which comply with promoting fundamental British values, as all in
your Lordships’ House would agree.
The Lord
My Lords, will the Minister commend the people of Birmingham for
their extraordinary efforts since 2014 on cohesion and attempting
to learn lessons from this very complicated event, as we have
heard in your Lordships’ House today? Will she particularly
commend them for the United Nations rights reporting school
award, which has been applied for every year and is now awarded
to 51% of primary and secondary schools in Birmingham, compared
with only 18% across the country? Will she commend these actions
and others, and ask for them to be replicated around the country
so that we might live as one people?
(Con)
I thank the right revered Prelate for his question and for
pointing out the success of integration in primary schools; I am
happy to share in his welcome of that.
(Con)
As the right reverend Prelate said, it is a complicated
situation, but the podcast itself—the reporting as per the
original Question—was at times quite worryingly skewed. Does my
noble friend think that schools are doing enough to challenge
extremism, or, as a result of this podcast, are they afraid of
being labelled racist?
(Con)
My noble friend is right that these are very sensitive issues,
but challenging intolerant, racist or discriminatory views should
be seen as part of a school’s wider anti-bullying and
safeguarding duties. Actively promoting British values means that
any opinions or behaviours that contradict them need to be
challenged. I hope my noble friend will be reassured that a
survey in 2021 showed that 87% of school leaders reported feeling
confident that their school could facilitate conversations around
extremism and radicalisation.
