Rayner’s department launches review after deleting evidence used to shape Islamophobia definition

The Whitehall mandarin revealed the department is now conducting an internal review in a letter sent to Shadow Justice Secretary Nick Timothy.

In his letter, Mr Garton said: “Following your correspondence, and a number of further inquiries received by the department relating to the call for evidence, I have asked officials to undertake further work regarding the handling of information associated with that exercise to ensure that the department’s response addresses all relevant issues raised.

“This work does not involve reconsidering the Government’s decision to adopt the definition.

"I can, in the meantime, continue to be clear that ministers were not involved in operational decisions relating to the handling or retention of the dataset.

“As ministers have set out previously, the definition is non-statutory and does not alter existing protections for freedom of expression.

"It was adopted in response to the significant rise in anti-Muslim hostility the Government is committed to addressing."

Mr Timothy, who had warned creating an official Islamophobia definition risks constraining free speech, put pressure on the department after receiving responses to Freedom of Information requests.

Speaking to The Telegraph after the investigation was launched, Mr Timothy said: “Labour’s cover-up has been exposed.

"The fact that Angela Rayner’s top official has ordered an investigation cannot be seen as anything other than an admission that the mass deletion of evidence was wrong.

“It is now clear that Labour didn’t want the public to know who influenced their Islamophobia definition, and they have refused to deny that extremist groups were involved.

“Labour should finally come clean about who submitted evidence to the working group, and this investigation must give us the answers we need.”

Mr Timothy is now looking to establish how far any extremist organisations might have influenced the drafting of the non-statutory definition.

Following a consultation period, Labour dropped its pledge to create an Islamophobia definition.

It instead opted to bring in measures to tackle "anti-Muslim hostility" and published the official definition in March.

Mr Timothy had accused the department of breaching its own records policy by failing to ensure "transparency and accountability".

However, the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government claimed it was necessary to destroy the submissions.

It claimed the “volume of special category data" could not be retained longer than it was needed for the consultation under the Data Protection Act of 2018.

The department categorically rejects any suggestion of a cover-up, describing such claims as "completely false".

It has also said that no extremist groups had any influence over the Government’s definition of anti-Muslim hostility.

Mr Timothy revealed the revelations about Islamophobia just days after Ms Rayner’s ministry faced a revolt over trans toilets.

Staff handed out leaflets criticising Ms Rayner’s department for “preventing trans and non-binary colleagues from using their preferred toilet facilities” and calling on it to “halt the proposed policy changes”.

Sex Matters, the gender-critical women’s rights group, accused the campaigners of creating a “hostile” environment for female colleagues by asking them to sign the petition on their way into work.