A man who worked for the Home Office was sacked for sharing a post made by Richard Tice, the Reform UK MP. The Telegraph has the story.
Gary Costin, who had spent 15 years working for government contractors Mitie and G4S, was dismissed after a complaint about the message, which raised concerns about a Muslim lobbying group.
In his post on X, Mr Tice, who was the leader of Reform UK at the time, had reacted to an article by GB News revealing that members of the Home Office’s Islamic staff network sought to “influence policymakers” to support “Muslim needs”.
A link to the post, which had already been captioned “Uh oh”, was then forwarded on by Mr Costin. The 57-year-old was then suspended, in April last year.
Mr Costin, whose job was to remove some of the most violent foreign-born criminals from the UK, was then dismissed by Mitie despite the company accepting that he had not intended to cause any offence.
The case will raise fresh questions about freedom of speech and follows rows about political correctness inside the department.
During 15 years spent working for Home Office contractors, Mr Costin led teams that escorted foreign criminals on to flights back to their country of origin.
This work involved taking murderers, rapists, drug dealers and other offenders back to countries including Afghanistan, Sierra Leone and Somalia.
But Mr Costin “lost almost everything” after forwarding a single message he had received to a small WhatsApp group chat on April 14 2024.
A list of the Islamic network’s aims that had been seen by GB News included “promote a clear understanding of generic Islam” and “providing advice and guidance to senior civil service management on religious issues that affect Muslim staff”.
In response, Mr Tice wrote: “SHOCKING REVELATIONS: Large Islamic Network inside Home Office, now suspended, appears to have been deliberately undermining government policy.
“How many other departments have similar? Answers needed urgently. Possible national security issues at stake.”
Mr Costin did not add any remarks of his own to the message he sent to the group chat.
The following day, he learnt he had been suspended after an anonymous complaint to Mitie’s whistleblowing hotline.
He was later sacked after an anonymous co-worker claimed that by sharing the message, he had “spread hatred” towards Muslims and that this was tantamount to “bullying”.
The complainant is also understood to have described the forwarded post as “an insult to all my Muslim colleagues”, adding it had “done nothing but spread hate”.
Worth reading in full.
