When Ed Balls left a Labour fundraiser at a Westminster curry house last Wednesday to be interviewed on Newsnight, he had the look of a man with an ace up his sleeve. David Cameron’s attack on the government for allowing public funds to go to schools influenced by Islamist extremists was blunted by some slapdash research. Although understandable given their profusion, muddling up ‘pathfinder’ funds was stupid. Far more foolish was the response of ministers, who leapt on the muddle as proof that the central charge was also flawed. As a former special adviser, I understand the need for survival tactics in what Denis Healey called the ‘jungle warfare’ of Cabinet-level politics. Sometimes the best you can hope for is to go to bed in one piece.
But the fundamental charges — that schools in Tottenham and Slough were influenced by Islamism, that their leading lights had links to the ultra-extremist Hizb ut Tahrir, and that concepts such as the Caliphate and Ummah were being taught to young children — are too important to ignore.
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