A British lawmaker said she was fired from a ministerial job in Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Conservative government partly because her Muslim faith was making colleagues uncomfortable, newspaper Sunday Times reported.
Talking to Sunday Times, 49-year-old Nusrat Ghani, who lost her job as a junior transport minister in February 2020, said that she was told by a whip – an enforcer of parliamentary discipline – that her “Muslimness” had been raised as an issue.
“I was told that at the reshuffle meeting in Downing Street that ‘Muslimness’ was raised as an ‘issue’, that my ‘Muslim woman minister’ status was making colleagues uncomfortable,” the news paper quoted Ghani, as saying.
“I will not pretend that this hasn’t shaken my faith in the party and I have at times seriously considered whether to continue as an MP,” said Britain’s first female Muslim minister.
Prime Minister’s office did not give any immediate response to her comments, but Mark Spencer, the government’s chief whip, said he was the person at the centre of Ghani’s allegations.
Taking it to Twitter, he said, “These accusations are completely false and I consider them to be defamatory. I have never used those words attributed to me.”
To which, Spencer responded saying that Ghani had declined to put the matter to a formal internal investigation when she first raised the issue in March, last year.
Ghani’s remarks come after William Wragg, one of her Conservative colleagues, accused government whips of attempting to blackmail MPs trying to force Boris Johnson from office over public anger about parties held at his Downing Street office during Covid-19 lockdowns.
These scandals have drained public support from both Boris personally and his party, presenting him with the most serious crisis of his leadership.
Johnson said he has neither seen nor heard any evidence to support Wragg’s claims. His office said it would “very carefully” look at any such evidence.
On Sunday, Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab said that Ghani’s claims should be properly investigated if she makes a formal complaint.
“We have absolutely zero tolerance for any discrimination, and any Islamophobia, in the Conservative Party. A claim like this, as serious as it is, should be properly reported, and then a proper investigation (should take place),” Raab told Sky News on Sunday.
Accusations of Islamophobia
Earlier, the Conservative Party had faced accusations of Islamophobia. A report in last May criticised how it dealt with complaints of discrimination against Muslims.
The report led Johnson to issue a apology for any offence caused by his past statements about Islam, including a newspaper column wherein he referred to women wearing burqas as “looking like letterboxes”.
The Conservatives must investigate Ghani’s account immediately, Main opposition Labour leader Keir Starmer said, adding on Twitter that “This is shocking to read.”
Ghani’s comments about the whips’ behaviour echo the allegations made by William Wragg.
On Saturday, Wragg said on Twitter, “Nus is very brave to speak out. I was truly appalled to learn of her experience.” He told the Daily Telegraph newspaper that he would meet the police early next week to discuss his allegations.
“As with any such allegations, should a criminal offence be reported to the Met, it would be considered,” a London Metropolitan Police spokesman said.
Johnson, who won his party’s biggest majority in 2019 in 30 years, is fighting to shore up his authority after the “partygate” scandals. This included the controversy of corruption row, other missteps, and criticism of the government’s handling.
Johnson, who repeatedly apologised for the parties, said he was unaware of many of them, but admitted he attended what he said he thought was a work event on 20 May, 202, when he was largely banned from social mixing. Invitations had asked staff to “bring their own booze” to the event.
Next week, senior civil servant Sue Gray is expected to deliver a report on the lockdown parties, with many Conservative MPs saying they would await her findings before deciding whether they would take action to oust Boris Johnson.
