Concerns extremists have also infiltrated the NHS, civil service and local

David Cameron last night launched a major inquiry into whether Islamist extremists have infiltrated the UK’s public sector.

The Prime Minister acted amid concerns of ‘entryism’ by fanatics into the NHS, the civil service, local authorities and the country’s education system following the Trojan Horse plot in Birmingham.

This saw Islamist hardliners attempt to take over a number of schools and radicalise children.

David Cameron, who last night launched a major inquiry into whether Islamist extremists have infiltrated the UK’s public sector

The inquiry was revealed during the launch of the Government’s updated counter-extremism strategy.

Mr Cameron said politicians could no longer ‘put our kid gloves on’ and hope the threat posed by extremists would go away.

As the Mail revealed yesterday, the document also contained plans to treat Islamist fanatics in the same way as paedophiles by automatically banning them from working with children.

And parents will be able to apply to have the passports of under-18s taken away if they fear they are planning to travel to Syria or Iraq to engage in jihad.

Discussing the risk of extremism in the public sector, the strategy says: ‘We will carry out a full review to ensure all institutions are safeguarded from the risk posed by entryism.

‘This will report in 2016 and look across the public sector, including schools, further and higher education colleges, local authorities, the NHS and the civil service.

'The review will clearly set out the risk posed and advise on measures to guard against entryism, for example by improving governance, inspection and whistle-blowing.

‘It will engage charities and businesses to help them identify and tackle entryist behaviour.’ Mr Cameron also announced a review into the application of sharia law in the UK and vowed to toughen the rules around gaining British citizenship.

In an article on Facebook, the Prime Minister said it was time for the Muslim ‘silent majority’ to stand up and tackle Islamist extremism in their communities.

He added: ‘The fight against Islamist extremism is, I believe, one of the great struggles of our generation.

‘In responding to this poisonous ideology, we face a choice. Do we close our eyes, put our kid gloves on and just hope that our values will somehow endure?

‘Or do we get out there and make the case for those values, defend them with all that we’ve got and resolve to win the battle of ideas all over again?’ He went on to say: ‘In the past, I believe that governments made the wrong choice.

‘Whether in the face of Islamist or neo-Nazi extremism, we were too tolerant of intolerance, too afraid to cause offence. We seemed to lack the strength and resolve to stand up.’

Yesterday Dr Shuja Shafi, secretary general of the Muslim Council of Britain, attacked the plans – claiming they would ‘reinforce perceptions that all aspects of Muslim life must undergo a compliance test to prove our loyalty to this country’.