THE LABOUR opposition let both Tory Education Secretary Michael Gove and Home Secretary Theresa May off the hook by failing to call for their resignations over the ‘Trojan Horse’ scandal following the debate in parliament yesterday.
The ‘Trojan Horse’ scandal refers to allegations by May that Gove was responsible for Islamists being allowed to take control of Birmingham schools.
May’s special advisor Fiona Cunningham was forced to resign over the public release of a letter from May to Gove in which she laid the responsibility for this crisis firmly on his shoulders.
Labour Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper asked in the special question time in parliament yesterday: ‘We ask the Home Secretary to make a statement regarding her conduct regarding the government’s action in and around preventing extremism.
‘The Home Secretary has to answer specific questions for her conduct in this process and particularly about the letter she wrote to the Education Secretary which the Home Office released and which has made it harder to get that joint working in place. She said that she did not authorise the publication of the letter on the website but then why did she not insist that the letter was removed, rather then leaving it in place on the Home Office website for three days.’
She added: ‘Section 251 of the Ministerial Code makes it clear that the privacy of opinions expressed in cabinet and ministerial correspondence should be maintained. So did she and her department break the Ministerial Code?’
May responded by vehemently denying all responsibility stating: ‘I can tell her, as the Cabinet Secretary and the Prime Minister concluded, I did not break the code and as she has no evidence that I did, she should withdraw any allegations.’
Replying to the publication on the website she stated: ‘She asked about the letter and its presence on the website and why action wasn’t taken but action was taken immediately because the Prime Minister asked the Cabinet Secretary to investigate.’
But as the debate continued it was clear that neither Yvette Cooper nor any other Labour MP was going to press the Tory ministers on these issues.
Labour MP Dennis Skinner stated: ‘If the Home Secretary’s case is so convincing why did she not manage to convince the Secretary of State for Education. Is it because there is an alternative agenda in the Tory party and that is, in the post election, the nasty party are getting ready for a succession battle and the Home Secretary is battling with the State for Education. That’s what’s really happening, that’s the truth. She might not like it but that is what the people out there think.’
