A leading Muslim peer has called for an inquiry into the Islamophobia monitoring group Tell Mama over concerns about a “lack of transparency” on how it is spending public money.
Shaista Gohir, the chief executive of the Muslim Women’s Network UK, has also accused Tell Mama of failing to provide detailed data on anti-Muslim hate crimes, being “silent” when politicians have targeted Muslims, and questioned whether the Tories used it as a vehicle to monitor extremism.
Tell Mama denied the claims and described the idea it was secretly being used to tackle Muslim extremism as a “slur”. It said it regularly reports “according to the government’s due processes” and that no issues had been raised with the group by officials.
Lady Gohir said the public had a right to know how taxpayers’ money had been spent by Tell Mama. “We need an inquiry because, if you look at the questions, they’re very simple: how much was spent on salaries? How much was spent on consultancy fees?”
Tell Mama has been the government’s key partner in monitoring anti-Muslim hatred for 13 years, but its government funding was abruptly paused earlier this month, leading to fears it would close at a time when anti-Muslim hate incidents have increased.
The faith minister, Wajid Khan, said “ministers do not have concerns about financial, structural or governance issues in respect of Tell Mama”.
Nonetheless, the government said it would launch an “open bidding process” for the contract to monitor anti-Muslim hatred and to support victims, opening Tell Mama up to competition for the first time. It did not answer questions from the Guardian as to why.
Parliamentarians from both houses have privately told the Guardian of their concerns about Tell Mama.
Gohir, a cross-party peer, had been raising questions in parliament and in letters to communities ministers under the previous Conservative administration for more than a year before the funding wrangle.
Sayeeda Warsi, the former chair of the Conservative party who was involved in Tell Mama’s founding, described the group on X as “unfit for purpose”.
But others have rallied to its defence, including the life peer Kishwer Falkner, who raised the issue of its funding in the House of Lords last month, asking for reassurance that “moderate Muslim groups” were worthy of support.
Tell Mama has received £6m in funding since 2012 and has now confirmed that, after extensive negotiations with the government, it has secured funding for work completed in 2024-25, with more offered.
The service is run by a community-interest company, Faith Matters, so it is not bound by the same stringent rules as charities when it comes to publishing an itemised breakdown of its spending.
Tell Mama’s chief executive, Iman Atta, said the organisation would be “happy to cooperate with anybody regarding the use of public funds”.
Faith Matters, founded in 2007 by the former Liberal Democrat councillor Fiyaz Mughal, specialises in interfaith work and conflict resolution. In 2012, it launched the Tell Mama project. Mughal remains Faith Matters’ director.
Atta denied Gohir’s assertion that the organisation was silent when Tories made negative remarks on Muslims, citing past challenges to figures such as Boris Johnson, and insisted Tell Mama did not do any work to tackle Muslim extremism and that it had never received any funding from Prevent, the UK’s counter-terrorism strategy.
A spokesperson for the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government said it was “committed to providing a comprehensive service to monitor anti-Muslim hatred and provide support for victims” and would “soon be opening a call for grant applications to ensure we can meet the challenges communities face today”, to which Tell Mama is welcome to apply.
Atta said: “We hope that whichever organisation is successful in the open-grant process is able to continue this work with urgency, dedication and commitment”, at a time when “far-right movements” and “incidents of anti-Muslim hatred are on the rise”.
