The Government was warned about attempts by Islamic extremists to take over Birmingham schools four years before the ‘Trojan Horse’ plot became public – but did nothing, Labour has claimed.

Shadow Education Secretary Tristram Hunt told the Commons that ministers had put city pupils at risk.

He hit out after Education Secretary Nicky Morgan told MPs she was confident the problems exposed by inquiries into the Trojan Horse affair could not happen again.

Labour highlighted the findings of an investigation by a senior civil servant into claims that headteachers had tried to warn the Department for Education what was happening.

The inquiry found:

  • The department received information about potential infiltration of school governing bodies in Birmingham from a city church leader and three headteachers as long ago as 1994.
  • Problems with the governing body of Moseley School were raised with the department in 2008.
  • A letter was sent by a Birmingham assistant headteacher expressing concerns about Moseley School just after the May 2010 general election.
  • Tim Boyes, head of Queensbridge School in Moseley, warned of “the issue of potential extremism in Birmingham schools” when he met an education minister and officials twice in 2010.
  • In 2013 an email was received by the department from a consultant specialising in special needs provision warning that young people could become radicalised “in places like Birmingham” in the education system.
  • Lord Hunt of Kings Heath, a Birmingham-based member of the House of Lords, wrote a letter to Government Minister Lord Hill on March 23 2013 to warn about the infiltration of city schools.

Ministers launched a review after the Trojan Horse letter detailing the plot became public in March last year.

But the inquiry, led by Chris Wormald, the Permanent Secretary for the Department for Education, found the Government should have acted sooner.

He warned: “I have found the department has lacked inquisitiveness about this issue, and that procedures could have been tighter than they were.”

Speaking in the Commons, Mr Hunt claimed: “Meetings were not followed up. Warnings were ignored. Only when the so-called Trojan Horse affair hit the newspapers did government ministers think it would be a good idea to act to safeguard the children of Birmingham – for four years they did nothing at all.”

Mrs Morgan told MPs that a future Trojan Horse scandal would be identified and dealt with more quickly as a result of changes the Government had made.

She added: “The job is not done. The problems we encountered in Birmingham arose over a number of years and will not be resolved overnight.”