By Paul Goodman MP, a Shadow Communities and Local Government Minister.
Ministers claimed yesterday that they’ve toughened the Government’s position on which community groups they’ll talk to - excluding those, according to one report, “whose views and practices sit outside the ‘core values’ of mainstream Britain”.
This report specifically cited as an example the DCLG’s relationship with the Muslim Council of Britain. It said:
“In 2006, Ms Blears' predecessor as Communities Secretary Ruth Kelly scaled back official contacts with the Muslim Council of Britain over its boycott - since dropped - of Holocaust Memorial Day.”
But claims of a new, tough policy are simply Labour spin – and I’ve a letter on my desk from a Minister to prove it. The letter also raises the question of whether the Minister concerned misled the Commons – “inadvertedly”, as MPs put it.
So let’s get at the truth, rather than the spin.
First of all, the MCB didn’t attend this year’s Holocaust Memorial Day national event. It did attend last year’s. I think that most people would reasonably view this change of heart as a boycott.
I asked Sadiq Khan, a DCLG Minister, about the MCB’s decision in
the Commons on January 29 – and whether the Government’s engagement
with it would change as a result, in line with the Ruth Kelly policy.
He said that “I have received no indication from the group that it has
boycotted the event, and nor am I aware of ministerial colleagues being
thus informed.”
But two days earlier, his own Department issued a statement as follows: “Officials here are due to meet representatives of the Muslim Council of Britain in the coming days. At that meeting the issue of their non attendance at the Holocaust Memorial Day will be discussed.”
And on the same day that I questioned Khan in the Commons, his Ministerial colleague, Shahid Malik, attacked the MCB for their decision in a letter to the Guardian.
Furthermore, I this week received a letter from Khan stating that officials “are due to meet representatives of the Muslim Council of Britain in the normal course of business [my italics]. They will discuss any issues of concern at that meeting”.
I believe that we can draw five conclusions from all this:
- First, if Khan knew about his Department’s own statement of January 27, he was “inadvertedly” misleading the House on January 29.
- Second, if Khan didn’t know about the statement, he hasn’t a clue what’s going on in his own Department.
- Third, Ministers in this Government don’t talk to each other.
- Fourth, the Government’s position on engagement with the MCB, far from toughening, has actually weakened.
- Fifth – and most obviously – Blears’ speech was all spin.
