All officials holding public office should swear an oath of allegiance to "British values" to help fight extremism and encourage integration, Communities Secretary Sajid Javid said yesterday.
Writing in The Sunday Times, Javid proposed that anyone employed by the public sector - including councillors, school governors and civil servants - would be expected to commit to the oath, which might have to be read aloud. Javid suggested this could extend to those working in the NHS and BBC.
The Communities Secretary said it was not possible for people to play a "positive role" in public life unless they accepted such basic values as democracy, equality and freedom of speech and that those in office should "lead by example".
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
Join more than 350,000 subscribers and keep yourself informed with a selection of The Week’s most interesting, enlightening and entertaining stories - plus daily puzzles.
Join more than 350,000 subscribers and keep yourself informed with a selection of The Week’s most interesting, enlightening and entertaining stories - plus daily puzzles.
Latest Videos FromThe Week
"We can't expect new arrivals to embrace British values if those of us who are already here don't do so ourselves," he said.
Javid said his aim was not to create a "government-approved one-size-fits-all identity" where everybody listens to the Last Night of the Proms, but warned that "without common building blocks of our society, you'll struggle to play a positive role in British life".
Javid's intervention follows a damning report by Dame Louise Casey, the community cohesion tsar, which warned that some Muslim communities are living in "extreme isolation" from the rest of society and do not share common values such as tolerance.
The report found that Britain had benefited hugely from immigration and the increase in ethnic and religious diversity, but there had not been sufficient emphasis on integration,
At present, only those who become British citizens swear an oath of allegiance, but the report recommended that every new migrant commit to a shared set of values.
Javid also proposed that schoolchildren should be taught "British values" to help bind communities together.
Under plans being drawn up by Education Secretary Justine Greening, Christian, Muslim and Jewish schools could be made to include sex and relationship education in their curriculums. "Sex education will be widened to include domestic abuse and the risks of sexting," says the Sunday Times.
