Governor recruitment freeze after 'Islamic plot' claims

A council is freezing the recruitment of school governors while it investigates claims of an "Islamic takeover plot".

Birmingham City Council said the system of appointing governors had not changed since the 1980s and needed to be overhauled.

Councillor Brigid Jones, in charge of education, said "floods of allegations" had been received in the wake of an anonymous letter outlining a plot to impose an Islamic agenda in a number of Birmingham schools.

The so-called "Operation Trojan Horse" sparked an investigation by the council and Ofsted, with assistance from the police.

Nadeem Malik, from Muslim charity and educational organisation, The Bahu Trust, said: "It's a very extreme, knee-jerk reaction to what is a discredited document."