Sadiq Khan: ministers are clueless on curbing prison radicalisation

"We should be able to do better because in prison you have a cohort of people 24 hours a day at your disposal. Instead the Government have allowed prisons to become universities of crime and radicalisation.”

Mr Khan referred to opportunities missed by the Government, including a detailed report in December 2013 by the Prime Minister’s task force on tackling extremism that devoted “only a few brief paragraphs” to radicalisation in prisons.

Although the report acknowledged that “it is not acceptable for terrorists and extremists to use their time behind bars to radicalise other prisoners”, the task force’s recommended response — “to deploy Muslim chaplains to challenge the extremists” — appears to have been subverted, he said.

Recent press reports have questioned why Ahtsham Ali, the government adviser overseeing the approval of Muslim prison chaplains, had appointed 140 imams who follow hard-line Deobandi interpretations of Islam.

Mr Khan, who made “tackling extremism” one of his election pledges, said: “The testimony of the former Belmarsh inmate turned whistleblower as told to the Evening Standard is that many prison imams turn a blind eye or even support extremists.

"We urgently need some quality assurance around which chaplains are allowed into prisons and what form of Islam they preach.”

He added that he would be seeking discussions with Mr Gove to address the problem of the imams and to push for an extension of his powers to tackle youth justice and probation.

Asked what else should be done, Mr Khan said: “We have to achieve two things — to de-radicalise and rehabilitate the extremists, and to make sure that ordinary prisoners do not come out radicalised.

“This will take vetting of imams as well as proper training of prison officers to spot extremists and preachers of hate — and most importantly to give vulnerable prisoners resilience.”

A Ministry of Justice source said of Justice Secretary Michael Gove: “He set up the first ever review of Islamist extremism in prisons. The idea Michael Gove won’t deal with extremism is total nonsense.”

A Prison Service spokesman said: “We are not complacent in the slightest about the risks posed by Islamist extremism. That is why we have undertaken a comprehensive review of how the prison system deals with this issue. We will set out next steps in due course.”