The Conservative Party has complained about an Office of the Third Sector civil servant who set up a Facebook group criticising David Cameron.

Francis Maude, shadow minister for the Cabinet Office, has written to Sir Gus O’Donnell, Cabinet Secretary, complaining that Khaled Moyeed, a civil servant working for the Office of the Third Sector, had set up Facebook group “specifically to condemn David Cameron”.

“The group’s pages contain several political comments directly attributable to Mr Moyeed which are highly critical of David Cameron and the Conservative Party,” said Maude (pictured).

“Political impartiality is the cornerstone of our much-respected civil service and this type of political action is therefore completely unacceptable…I very much hope that you will take swift action to address this issue.”

On Saturday, Khaled Moyeed had encouraged people to join his Facebook group 'We condemn David Cameron and Conservative Party for Smearing Muslim Schools' on fellow Facebook group 'The Muslim Paper' and 'Friends of the Islamic Shaksiyah Foundation'.

On the Facebook group 'The Muslim Paper', Moyeed had written: “I have created a group 'We condemn David Cameron and Conservative Party for Smearing Muslim Schools' to protest against false accusations made by the Tories about Islamic Shakhsiyah Foundation schools.

"Please join this group and register your protest. It's really important that we get as many people as possible.... We'll press release it in the new year. In an election year, the Tories will take it seriously when there are loads of us protesting against their lies and smear campaign.”

However, these comments have now been removed from the Muslim Paper Facebook Group and Moyeed’s group can no longer been found on Facebook.  

A Cabinet Office spokesman said: "The Cabinet Office has been made aware of a public Facebook group created by an employee. We understand that he is no longer a member of the online group. We are investigating the circumstances in accordance with our employment policies.

"The Civil Service Code of Conduct is very specific about the high level of integrity and impartiality expected of all civil servants. The Cabinet Office takes extremely seriously any allegations that officials have breached these codes and will always act swiftly to enforce them."