Former British Deputy Transport Minister Nusrat Ghani said on Sunday she was sacked during a government reshuffle in 2020 because her “Islamist” faith was a “problem”, prompting accusations of Islamophobia within Boris Johnson’s already under pressure Conservative Party.
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Nusrat Ghani, 49, told the Sunday Times that a Conservative Party executive made it clear to him in February 2020 that his “origins and faith” were instrumental in his exclusion from government.
“I was told that at the Downing Street reshuffle meeting my ‘Islamic faith’ was raised as an ‘issue’, and that a Muslim woman in government was making my colleagues uncomfortable and there was a fear that I + was not loyal to the party, because I had not done enough to defend it against allegations of Islamophobia+”, she stated.
“It was like a punch in the stomach. I felt humiliated and helpless,” the deputy told the newspaper, saying she had not spoken about it publicly at the time, as she had been warned that she would be “ostracized by her colleagues” and that “her career and her reputation would be ruined.”
In an unusual move, Mark Spencer, the party’s executive director, identified himself as the person targeted by these remarks, while he denied it. “These accusations are completely false and I consider them defamatory,” he said on Twitter.
They have come at an already difficult time for Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Conservative Party, which is now in an ejection seat, as a string of Downing Street parties are embroiled in a total siege.
They also come to revive the old demons of conservatives long accused of allowing Islamophobia to flourish in their ranks. In May 2021, a report concluded that “anti-Muslim sentiment remains a problem within the party”, confronting the problem of Islamophobia at the local or individual, but not “institutional” level.
A Downing Street spokesperson said: “Recognizing these extremely serious allegations, Prime Minister Nusrat Ghani met and subsequently wrote to her expressing her deep concern and calling for the initiation of a formal complaint procedure, which she subsequently did not do.” “The Conservative Party does not tolerate any prejudice or discrimination of any kind,” he added.
Education Minister Nadim Zahawi had called for a “proper investigation” on Twitter, but Justice Minister Dominic Raab, despite the accusations he described as “extremely serious”, warned Sunday morning on the BBC that there would be no investigation if it did not provide Mrs. Ghani is officially an official application. Internal complaint.
