Birmingham Chairman at Heart of "Trojan Horse" Scandal Blasts "Politically Motivated" Clarke Inquiry

The school chairman at the heart of the Birmingham "Trojan Horse" scandal has accused the government of mounting a "politically motivated offensive" in its recently published Clarke report.

Tahir Alam, who has resigned from his post as head of the Park View Educational Trust, dismissed the findings of the Peter Clarke inquiry, which found compelling evidence of an effort by school governors in the area to introduce an "intolerant and aggressive Islamic ethos".

The government-led report also found that a number of teachers implicated in the scandal believed the murder of Fusilier Lee Rigby was a hoax and wanted to promote this view.

Alam branded the conclusions of the report as "selective" and refused to accept that he and other members of the local schools board had acted wrongly.

He also criticised Clarke, who is the ex-deputy assistant commissioner of the Metropolian Police, for not visiting his school or speaking to any of the pupils.

Clarke revealed in the inquiry that he had no desire to interview parents or pupils, instead speaking with 50 witnesses including former headteachers, teachers, council staff and school governing boards. "The level of distress and anxiety felt by the witnesses cannot be overstated", he said.

In a BBC Radio 4 interview on the Today programme, Alam blasted the report saying: "If we look at Peter Clarke's report, it was commissioned as part of a campaign really, an offensive against our school, which was politically motivated.

"Peter Clarke has gone on to do what people who commissioned this report - namely Michael Gove [wanted]. He has produced a report for him.

"His description of our schools and his characterisation of myself...is hugely, grossly misrepresented. It does not reflect the realities on the ground. He has never visited any of our schools and he has made these conclusions based on claims made by anonymous people."

Alam went on the say he did not agree with the conclusion that the children in a number of Birmingham schools were being taught to be intolerant to non-Muslims

His comments come after the trustees at the centre of the Trojan Horse school controversy resigned en masse in protest at a "coordinated and vicious" offensive led by the erstwhile education secretary Michael Gove.