British minister Nadim Zahavi on Sunday urged an inquiry into the claims of a fellow Conservative MP that he lost his ministerial role because of his “Muslimism”, putting further pressure on the government.
49-year-old Nusrat Ghani was sacked from the post of Transport Minister in 2020 and said Sunday Times that a whip told a meeting in Downing Street that his “Muslimism was raised as an issue”.
She claimed that she was also told that “the status of Muslim woman minister is making colleagues feel uncomfortable”, she claimed.
Chief Whip Mark Spencer, whose role is to keep lawmakers on board with the government’s agenda, took the unusual step of identifying himself as the person at the center of the claims and denied the allegations.
“These allegations are completely false and I consider them defamatory,” he wrote on Twitter.
“I have never used words that are attributed to me. It is disappointing that when this issue was first raised, Ghani refused to refer the matter to the Conservative Party for formal investigation.
Government whips are in the limelight when they were Guilty He was under criticism by Tory MP William Ragg for “blackmailing” critics of Prime Minister Boris Johnson to stop him from trying to oust him.
Reading, UK MP says he will go to police with ‘blackmail’ claims
Johnson’s office said the prime minister was aware of the claims at the time, and had invited him to make a formal complaint.
A Downing Street spokesperson said: “After being made aware of these extremely serious claims, the Prime Minister met and discussed with Nusrat Ghani.”
“He then wrote to her expressing her serious concern and invited her to initiate a formal complaints process. She later did not do so. The Conservative Party does not tolerate prejudice or discrimination of any kind.”
Ghani, deputy chairman of the influential 1922 committee of Tory backbenchers, told the newspaper that “it was like getting punched in the stomach. I felt humiliated and powerless.”
She said she kept quiet for fear of being “outcasted by coworkers”.
Vaccine Minister Jahavi has demanded an investigation. “There is no place for Islamophobia or racism of any kind in our @Conservatives party,” he tweeted, calling Ghani “a friend, an ally and a brilliant parliamentarian”.
“It should be properly investigated and racism must be rooted out.”
Justice Minister Dominic Raab called it a “very serious claim”, but pointed out BBC “Sunday morning” that an investigation would likely only happen if Ghani made a formal complaint.
Former Equality and Human Rights Commissioner Swaran Singh had two years ago investigated claims of Islamophobia in the Conservative Party.
He analyzed 727 separate incidents recorded between 2015 and 2020 and found no evidence of “institutionalized Islamophobia”, but now criticized senior Tory figures, including Prime Minister Johnson.
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