A former minister’s allegations should be the catalyst for finally tackling a problem that blights the modern Conservative party
Another day, another inquiry into alleged serious misbehaviour in Boris Johnson’s Downing Street operation. The prime minister’s decision to order a Cabinet Office investigation into allegations of Islamophobia by the Conservative MP Nusrat Ghani is welcome. But as Mr Johnson braces for a tumultuous week in which Sue Gray’s report on “partygate” could conceivably bring him down, it will partly have been motivated by a desire to kick this latest crisis into the long grass. Given the importance of the issues raised by Ms Ghani, their significance must not be lost in the chaos of an administration incapable of focusing on anything bar its own survival.
Ms Ghani claimed in a weekend interview that after she was sacked from a ministerial role in 2020, she was told by a government whip in Downing Street that her “Muslimness” had become a problem, and that her “Muslim woman minister status was making colleagues feel uncomfortable”. She also asserts she was told that, as a Muslim Conservative, she had not done enough to defend the party from widespread allegations of Islamophobia. These allegations have been vehemently denied by the chief whip, Mark Spencer, who identified himself on Twitter as the politician Ms Ghani was referring to. They are deeply shocking because they allege that as a female member of a minority group, Ms Ghani was effectively being told by the government that her face didn’t fit and she wasn’t doing enough to ensure that it did. When she complained to Mr Johnson over her treatment, the prime minister blithely refused to treat it as a government matter and directed her to internal party complaints procedures.
