Guest speakers at the UK Cabinet Office will now have their social media accounts vetted in an attempt to weed out those who have criticized government policy, the Financial Times reported.
Set to apply to all outsiders coming in to participate in the department’s “learning and development” events, the new policy will entail careful background checks, the publication added.
Civil servants will be required to scrutinize up to five years of posts to flag “potentially problematic or controversial material that may contravene civil service values”, including criticism of government officials or policy, strong political views and “behavior that might bring the civil service into disrepute”.
Allies of Cabinet Office minister Jacob Rees-Mogg were cited as hailing the due diligence policy, endorsed last week, as “very sensible”.
“There have been far too many examples recently where essentially extremist speakers have been invited to speak to civil servants and staff networks,” a colleague of Rees-Mogg stated.
‘Silencing Legitimate Criticism’
Angela Rayner, the deputy Labour leader, denounced the new rules as providing “a draconian excuse to block critics of government policy from even setting foot in Whitehall buildings”.
“Instead of seeking to silence entirely legitimate criticism of their litany of failures, ministers could do with listening to experts a little more and burying their heads in the sand a little less. By listening they might learn something about addressing the dysfunction that has set in at the heart of this Conservative government,” Rayner said.
When asked to comment on the report, the Cabinet Office sought to allay fears of automatic barring of guests speakers if they had previously posted critical comments targeting the government.
It emphasized that impartial decisions would be made on a case-by-case basis.