Jacob Rees-Mogg tells civil servants to trawl social media to weed out ‘extremist’ guests

Civil servants have been ordered by Jacob Rees-Mogg to trawl the social media accounts of guest speakers in an attempt to weed out “extremists”.

New Cabinet Office rules introduced last week also urge managers to carefully check the profiles of visitors taking part in “learning and development” events, including for criticisms of government policy.

The new vetting process involves looking at Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn posts from the past three to five years to find “potentially problematic or controversial material that may contravene civil service values”.

Allies of Mr Rees-Mogg, the minister for Brexit opportunities and government efficiency, welcomed the “very sensible” new measures.

A colleague told the Financial Times: “There have been far too many examples recently where essentially extremist speakers have been invited to speak to civil servants and staff networks.”

Prof Priyamvada Gopal was disinvited

Managers are also expected to look for any content that betrays “strong political partiality” or could undermine the reputation of the civil service if a particular individual were to be invited for an event.

Prof Priyamvada Gopal, a Left-wing academic at Cambridge University, was disinvited from a civil service speaking engagement at the Home Office in October over comments she made about Priti Patel on Twitter.

Prof Gopal wrote about the Home Secretary, whose parents fled Uganda in the 1960s: “Priti Patel is also a reminder that many Asians in British Africa had ferociously anti-black attitudes and were used by colonial administrations to keep black populations in their place. An attitude she brings to [the] Government.”

Afua Hirsch, the writer and broadcaster, addressed Home Office officials during an online lecture despite having publicly accused Boris Johnson of making a “litany of racist statements” and saying: “His oafish stupidity is part of Boris Johnson’s electoral brand.”

Last year, the Telegraph revealed civil servants were warned not to invite individuals who had “spoken against key government policies” and were urged to carry out “due diligence” checks on speakers.

Anti-Boris Johnson tweets

There was embarrassment for the Government in June when a series of anti-Boris Johnson tweets by David Buttress emerged just hours after he was appointed as the new cost of living tsar.

Mr Buttress had called for Mr Johnson to quit over "partygate", writing: “Why is it that the worst people often rise to the highest office and stay there? Boris has to go, he just has to.”

The Cabinet Office said in a statement its new policy would “ensure there is a proper process for inviting speakers to talk to civil servants in the Cabinet Office, as the public rightly expects”.

It added: “We take a zero-tolerance approach to discriminatory behaviour and this process will help prevent anyone with a history of such comments from being invited.”