Tom Tugendhat responds to 'anti-extremism training' question

       Home Office minister Tom Tugendhat has blasted left-wing Civil Servant training courses, after concerning reports emerged claiming Mandarins are being “indoctrinated”.

       The Express understands the Security Minister has ordered an internal review of the Home Office’s use of external courses after a former civil servant reported that educational institutions are delivering “politically biased, anti-Government training amounting to indoctrination”.

       Writing for the Fathom Journal, Anna Stanley reported on a recent Kings College course delivered to civil servants, which she concluded was politically biased “to the point of being a national security risk”.

       Whitehall officials were taught to question “what is terrorism”, being drilled in the left-wing slogan: “one man’s freedom fighter is another man’s terrorist”.

       Ms Stanley asked the room: “Surely we can acknowledge subjectivity while being able to come up with a collective understanding of what terrorism is?”

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       Mr Tugendhat has ordered an internal review of the Home Office's training courses (Image: Getty)

       “Some 40 civil servants looked at me blankly. No?”

       The group was informed: “Some consider Hamas terrorists as freedom fighters”; while another PowerPoint slide warned: ‘Condemning terrorism is to endorse the power of the strong over the weak.”

       The civil servants were also informed that the UK’s counter-terrorism strategy, Prevent, is “inherently racist because it focuses on Islamist extremism” - despite 70 percent of UK terror attacks being Islamist in nature.

       The head of security studies at Kings College also informed civil servants that the very act of labelling a group ‘terrorist’ can increase their power.

       This argument, which was “nodded” at with agreement by attendees, stands in direct opposition to official Government policy.

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       Civil Servants were told Hamas could be considered 'freedom fighters' (Image: Getty)

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       Just yesterday Home Secretary James Cleverly announced he is to add Hizb ut-Tahrir to the list of proscribed terrorist groups, a group he described as an “antisemitic organisation that actively promotes and encourages terrorism, including praising and celebrating the appalling 7 October attacks”.

       The same civil servant training course that downplayed Islamic terrorism also described Spectator journalist Douglas Murray, and US podcaster Joe Rogan, as “far-right”.

       The lecturer invited those in attendance to deliberate “to what extent should Joe Rogan and Douglas Murray be suppressed”, and argued “society needs to find other ways to suppress them”.

       Following the deeply concerning reports, Mr Tugendhat is demanding answers and action.

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       Speaking in the Commons yesterday, he told MPs: “If courses aren’t high quality and politically neutral then civil servants shouldn’t be attending them.”

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       Addressing the debate held at the training day, around whether they could define terrorism, Mr Tugendhat provided the left-wing lecturers with a straightforward answer.

       He said: “We know what a terrorist is, the law knows what a terrorist is and this government knows what a terrorist is - that’s exactly why we’ve just proscribed Hizb ut-Tahrir.”

       A King’s College London spokesman argued the training course was “taught by eminent experts using impartial and evidence-based resources in an environment where different theories, concepts and questions are shared to prompt discussion”.

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