by Charles Hymas, Telegraph
Conservatives accuse Labour of ‘unacceptable disregard for transparency and accountability’
Angela Rayner’s department has been accused of possibly breaking the ministerial code by destroying evidence used to draw up a new definition of Islamophobia.
Nick Timothy, the shadow justice secretary, has written to Will Garton, the top civil servant at the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG), claiming that the deletion also breached the Government’s data policy.
“Labour has shown an unacceptable disregard for transparency and accountability by deleting the evidence behind a definition which they want the entire public and private sector to adopt,” Mr Timothy said.
It comes after a freedom of information request by Mr Timothy revealed that the department had deleted all submissions to its working group which drew up a draft of the definition.
He said he was seeking to establish how far any extremist organisations might have influenced the drafting of the new non-statutory definition, which would be used by public, private and charity bodies to identify and take action against anti-Muslim hostility.
Mr Timothy said the evidence received by the working group was key to drafting the definition as the MHCLG stated that its evidence-gathering exercise informed their advice to ministers and formed “the basis of the definition that the Government is now adopting”.
He said the ministry’s own records policy stated that it was committed to managing information in a way that enabled “transparency and accountability”.