Baroness Warsi claims Tory Islamophobia review 'doesn't look at what's gone on'

Baroness Warsi has criticised the Tory review into discrimination complaints
Rebecca Speare-Cole18 December 2019
WEST END FINAL

Get our award-winning daily news email featuring exclusive stories, opinion and expert analysis

I would like to be emailed about offers, event and updates from Evening Standard. Read our privacy notice.

Tory peer Baroness Warsi has said the party's Islamophobia review does not look at what happened or how badly the problem has been dealt with.

The Conservative Party has been accused of ignoring systemic Islamophobia in its ranks after Boris Johnson broke his promise to hold a specific inquiry into the issue.

He has instead announced a broad-brush review to look at how the party handles general discrimination complaints.

The Tories said it would look at how the party could improve its procedures and ensure "any instances are isolated and that there are robust processes in place to stamp them out".

Boris Johnson broke his promise for a full inquiry into Islamophobia specifically
AFP via Getty Images

But Lady Warsi told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "First of all I can actually live with the fact that the inquiry is broader than Islamophobia.

"I think what became apparent to me, certainly in the last few months, was that there was incidents of anti-Semitism and other forms of racism, so in a way I think having a broader inquiry may actually get to the hub of the issue."

She said it is an inquiry to look at how the party can improve their processes, adding: "So there's no look at what has actually gone on, there's no look at the extent of the cases, there's no detail of how bad the problem has been and how badly it's been dealt with.

Baroness Warsi (Parliament)

"It's almost a sense of 'What's happened has happened, let's kind of move on from that, and let's just make sure we get it right in the future'.

Lady Warsi also said the appointment of Professor Swaran Singh to lead the review does not "bode well" after she flagged comments he wrote in a Spike article accusing Muslims of driving other communities out of Indian Kashmir.

The Muslim Council of Britain also warned that the review risked becoming a "whitewash" under Prof Singh's leadership and reiterated its calls to hold a specific inquiry into Islamophobia.

Jeremy Corbyn came under pressure to apologise for anti-Semitism in the Labour Party
AFP via Getty Images

She said: "Having read Swaran Singh's views, and I wasn't aware of him before yesterday's announcement, I'm afraid that it doesn't bode well."

Announcing the appointment of Prof Singh - currently the Professor of Social and Community Psychiatry at Warwick University - party chairman James Cleverly said they were committed to stamping out "unacceptable abuse".

The move comes after the Prime Minister apologised during the General Election campaign for "all the hurt and offence" that had been caused to the Muslim community by Islamophobia within the party.

While Labour came under pressure during the election over its failure to deal with anti-Semitism, the Tories were accused by the Muslim Council of Britain of "denial, dismissal and deceit" when it came to Islamophobia.

Mr Johnson has been widely criticised for past remarks likening Muslim women who wear the veil to "bank robbers" and "letter boxes".

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in