• Environment minister, Mark Spencer, has been cleared of rule-breaking for his Islamaphobic comment against MP Nusrat Ghani.
• Rushi Sunak has said that he will take no further action against Mark Spencer.
“We fear a cover up of Islamophobia within the party” said supporters of Conservative MP Nusrat Ghani. This came after former chief whip was cleared of rule-breaking over claims he said that Ghani’s “Muslimness” played a role in her sacking.
Sir Laurie Magnus noted Spencer’s “shortcomings” in his actions. However, did not find him guilty of breaching the ministerial code because of “inconclusive evidence” about whether the alleged remarks were made. During the cabinet re-shuffle discussions, he found that religion had not come up.
Magnus launched his investigation in January 2022, following Ghani’s claim that Spencer linked her sacking as transport minister to her faith, and allegedly said it was “making colleagues uncomfortable”.
Ghani went on to say that she was warned that her career would be “destroyed” if she tried to complain whilst Boris Johnson was Prime minister.
Ghani expressed deep anguish that she had endured and compared the ordeal to being “punched in the stomach” (when she had initially spoken about it to the Sunday Times last year). She said her loyalty was also questioned because she “didn’t do enough to defend the party against Islamophobia allegations”.
Rishi Sunak has said that he will not be taking any further action on Spencer. Sunak has previously been accused of ‘Enabling a revolving door of racism’ and has now whitewashed the statements of Spencer.
With such rampant Islamophobia in the Tory party- first Johnson’s ‘letter box’ comment being unaccounted for, and now the dismissed remarks of Spencer, it is no surprise that the behaviour of British politicians has certainly had a hand to play in the acceptance of such bigoted and discriminatory comments, comments, which evidently marginalise the muslim community. Furthermore, send ripple effects to the masses and impact the treatment of muslims in the West- There were a reported 3,759,180 Islamophobic posts made on Twitter between 28 August 2019 and 27 August 2021.
