Cooper and Hunt call on Cameron to act over brutal Gove/May briefings

Whilst the Home Secretary and Education Secretary might not be able to be in the same room as each other – as their brutal briefing and counter-briefing row this week has suggested – their Labour counterparts have no such problems. In fact, they’ve written a letter to the Prime Minister this afternoon, asking him if he’s planning to take any action over what seem like multiple breaches of the ministerial code from senior cabinet ministers.

Here’s the letter:

Dear Prime Minister,

On the 5th June you announced that you had asked the Cabinet Secretary to do an investigation into the briefing and counter briefing between your Home Secretary and Education Secretary.

Yesterday the Government announced that review had completed. However a series of questions remain unanswered.

As you will agree it is vital that Government departments work together to tackle extremism and also to ensure that all our children get a balanced education. Departments need to work together, and work with community organisations and local groups so that they can work to prevent extremism too. Everyone recognises that these issues are complex to address, but that makes thoughtful cooperation between Ministers and departments even more important.

The Number 10 statement on Saturday evening still provides no assurance that the rows between departments have been addressed and that joint, effective strategies are in place either on ensuring balanced education in schools, or on preventing extremism in communities.

We need assurance that the Government is addressing the concerns raised around the schools in Birmingham, and that the lack of oversight and accountability under the new system for academies will be addressed as a matter of urgency.

We also need assurance that all Departments will work together on the Prevent strategy – working with communities themselves to prevent extremism rather than just leaving it to the police. Neither the Home Secretary’s approach, nor the Education Secretary’s approach are helping communities themselves get the support they need to take the lead in early prevention work.

And we need assurance that Ministers will work together and abide by the Ministerial code, especially on an issue as important as tackling extremism.

It appears that both the Home Secretary and the Education Secretary have broken the Ministerial Code in the last week. The Education Secretary has now apologised, however the Home Secretary has remained silent.

As Prime Minister it is your responsibility to enforce the Ministerial Code. Can you therefore explain whether the Home Secretary has broken the Ministerial Code or not, and what enforcement action you have taken?

Section 2.1 of the Ministerial Code says: “the privacy of opinions expressed in Cabinet and Ministerial Committees, including in correspondence, should be maintained.”

The Home Secretary’s letter to the Education Secretary is in response to Cabinet correspondence and circulated to the Extremism Taskforce. It was written and sent by the Home Secretary on June 3, apparently after and in response to the Home Office being made aware of the hostile briefing from the Education Secretary. It was briefed to journalists on the same day and published on the Home Office website in the early hours of 4 June. It remained on the Home Office website for 4 days.

It appears that the Home Secretary wrote this letter intending to publish it. Did she authorise the release of the letter? Is that in breach of the Ministerial Code? Given that the Home Secretary then allowed the letter to remain on the website for 4 days, is that also a breach of the Ministerial Code?

What action have you taken in response to a breach of the Ministerial Code by one of your most senior Cabinet ministers? Will the Home Secretary also be apologising or are some Ministers exempt from enforcement of the Ministerial Code?

The best way of ensuring people know the facts is to publish the Cabinet Secretary’s investigation.

Collective cabinet government on an issue as important as tackling extremism is vital. We need to know that these two Ministers and others are capable of working together in the future even if they have failed to do so thus far.

You said on 5 June that you were planning to get to the bottom of this and sort it out. It appears from the continued silence of the Home Secretary and the continued lack of joint working by departments that you have not yet done so.

In light of these hugely important outstanding issues it is vital that you now publish in full the Cabinet Secretary’s review and ensure its findings are presented to Parliament on Monday, with an oral statement to the House by the Minister for Cabinet Office.

Yours,

Yvette Cooper MP, Shadow Home Secretary
Tristram Hunt MP, Shadow Education Secretary