Kenan Malik (pictured) revealed that he was involved with many far-left organizations in the 1980s, including the Socialist Workers' Party and the Revolutionary Communist party. Party Credit: Colin McPherson/Corbis News
The public servant should be given a speech by a pro-migration scholar who called Swella Braverman's views on immigration «odious».
Writer and historian Kenan Malik was invited by the Open Innovation Team, a group of policy researchers based in the Ministry of Education, to give a lecture advertised to officials as «race, culture, whiteness and privilege», which will be held online on September 12, during office hours. .
The event, with Mr. Malik as the sole speaker, is open to government officials across Whitehall and is titled «Race, From White Supremacy to Identity Politics.»
The scholar criticized former Home Secretary Dama Priti Patel and Home Secretary Mrs Braverman for their views on migration.
He tweeted last October: «Braverman, Patel and others don't have odious views just on immigration . They have equally odious views on social security, workers' rights, etc.»
«They are right-wing Tories, and their views, like those of the white right-wing Tories, on all these issues are shaped by their wider ideology.»
Last April, Mr Malik described the government's plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda in an op-ed for The Observer, where he writes a weekly column, as a «disgusting arrangement» that creates a «theater of brutality» and in another article blamed «mainstream conservatives » in using far-right language.
Government crackdown
In recent years, the government has tried to crack down on controversial speakers invited to speak to government officials.
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However, last month the Cabinet temporarily withdrew its recommendation to test external speakers in Whitehall following a lawsuit by an expert who was not allowed to speak to the Department of Defense due to his previous criticism of the government.
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New rules are being drafted. and are expected to be introduced in the fall.
A government source said, «We clearly need to update our government speaker's guide precisely because of examples like this.»
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“Leaders in the public service should carefully consider who they invite.”
Responding to Mr. Malik’s invitation, Dame Preeti said, “This is an extreme betrayal of the voters who elected us to take back control over our borders in 2019.
«The invitation is also a clear violation of government guidelines for screening external speakers in Whitehall.»
She added that civil servants should not be «exposed to lectures from external speakers who believe they hold perfectly reasonable views on immigration control.» is «odious.»
«This invitation seems to indicate that Whitehall is out of control, and some civil servants believe that they can simply ignore the mandate under which it was elected it is the government,” she added.
р><р>In August 2022, Sir Jacob Reese Mogg, then Minister for Government Efficiency, introduced new rules for officials to screen third-party speakers for «potentially problematic or controversial material that may conflict with the values of the public service.»
Controversial Tweets< p>The move follows the rejection in October 2021 of an invitation by Professor Priyamwada Gopal, a left-wing academic who was scheduled to speak to Home Office officials despite controversial tweets attacking Lady Preity.
The scholar wrote that the former home secretary, whose parents fled Uganda in the 1960s, was «a reminder that many Asians in British Africa were violently anti-black and used by colonial administrations to keep the black population in their place.» The attitude she brings to [the government].”
Last month, however, the cabinet dropped two recommendations to test speakers; The Public Service Diversity Network's Due Diligence and Impartiality Guide and Training and Activities Guide.
Jeremy Queen, MP, Cabinet Minister, said in the House of Commons on 20 July that the government is committed to «ensure that to ensure that taxpayer money is not used to fund speakers who express or support extremist views,» however stated that «the guidance issued may have been adapted for use in areas for which it was not intended.»
After this newspaper warned of this event, the Ministry of Education on August 1 issued «interim measures» to screen external speakers for senior civil servants.
Tangerines were ordered to review upcoming diversity events, screen them for the presence of sensitive content and use the Diversity team to screen external speakers.
The memo said the interim arrangements would revert to a «previous informal process» where senior officials would «advise external rapporteurs on a case-by-case basis.»
Among those invited to Mr. Malik's lecture were members of the Migration and Borders (MBG), an office of the Home Office tasked with «leading the policies governing immigration, borders, asylum and citizenship in the UK».
< p>This event was included in an email about a series of seminars in Whitehall called «Events for Political Professions» that are aimed at politicians across government and hosted by various government agencies — in this case the OIT. Other advertised workshops have been hosted by groups including the Office of Science.
Specific Purposes
The Political Professions Office event featuring Mr. Malik is to be hosted by the government's Open Innovation Group (OIT).
The Political Professions Department is part of the Cabinet Office and aims to develop, develop and comply with «courses of action to achieve key government priorities and ministerial objectives.»
Meanwhile, the OIT is working with politicians across Whitehall, bringing together officials and scientists to exchange ideas and present new perspectives.
The government provides over £200,000 a year of office and staff support to the OIT. A quarter of the group's income comes from university contracts, but the «largest and fastest growing source» of its income comes from charging government departments for political work.
OIT's invited speakers are unremunerated. .
Yesterday, Malik revealed on Twitter that the OIT invited him «a few months ago», meaning his invitation was sent out before the Cabinet withdrew its review guide last month.
In an interview with Tribune magazine in May of this year, Mr. Malik revealed that he was “a member of many far-left organizations back in the 1980s – the Socialist Workers Party (SWP), the Revolutionary Communist Party (RCP) [and] Big Flame,” and said that after leaving these groups, “the materialistic, progressive structure” remained with him.A government spokesman said: “As the public expected, the government is committed to protecting free speech while maintaining impartiality of the public service. .
«All speakers are expected to abide by the principles of impartiality in the civil service.»
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