A PROBE into islamophobia within the Conservative party has found that Boris Johnson’s comments gave the impression the party was ‘insensitive’ to Muslims.
A 44,000 word report by Professor Swaran Singh, published today, examined the handling of complaints about Islamophobia within the UK Conservative party.
It found that the Prime Minister’s comments about women who wore burkas suggested the Tories were “insensitive to Muslim communities” but did not find that claims of “institutional racism” within the party were borne out by evidence.
The Prime Minister was cleared by a majority on an independent panel over a complaint he broke the party’s code of conduct following a Daily Telegraph column in 2018 which described Muslim women who wear the burka as looking like “letterboxes” and “bank robbers”.
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Mr Johnson said he was “sorry for any offence taken” and told Prof Singh’s investigation: “Would I use some of the offending language from my past writings today? Now that I am Prime Minister, I would not.”
The Singh Investigation report said several interviewees who spoke to the inquiry considered Mr Johnson’s language “discriminatory and unacceptable”.
The independent inquiry also recommended that the party’s leadership “ought to set a good example for appropriate behaviours and language.”
The investigation covered England, Wales and Northern Ireland, but did not look at the Scottish Conservative party and any handling of complaints there.
It also looked at the London mayoral campaign of Zac Goldsmith – now Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park - who ran against Sadiq Khan in 2016, during which he accused his Muslim Labour rival of associating with extremists.
The report said Lord Goldsmith “accepts poor judgement in the way his campaign was conducted but forcefully denies harbouring anti-Muslim sentiments or using such sentiments for political advantage”.
The report said high-profile cases like Mr Johnson’s and Lord Goldsmith’s “give the impression to many that the Party and its leadership are insensitive to Muslim communities”.
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From 2015-2020 the party’s central database recorded 1,418 complaints relating to 727 incidents of alleged discrimination – an average of 237 complaints about 122 incidents a year in a party of 200,000 members.
More than two-thirds of the incidents – 496 cases – related to Islam and 74% of all the cases involved social media activity.
Around a third of cases – 231 – resulted in a sanction, with 50% resulting in a suspension and 29% an expulsion from the party.
No action was taken in 418 incidents for reasons including the complaint being in relation to someone who was not a party member, insufficient evidence, or a prior investigation.
There was no evidence that complaints related to Islam are treated differently from those related to other forms of discrimination, nor did the panel find evidence of attempts to pressure or interfere with the handling of individual complaints.
But Prof Singh said the complaints process was “clunky, cumbersome and slow, and not transparent”.
Former Tory chairwoman Baroness Warsi has accused the party of “institutional racism” and submitted a dossier of 30 cases to the inquiry.
The report said it carried out “in-depth scrutiny” of the cases provided by Lady Warsi but “we concluded that her allegation of ‘institutional racism’ against the party was not borne out by evidence available to the investigation as regards the way the party handled the complaints process”.
But the report acknowledged that “anti-Muslim sentiment remains a problem” within the Conservative Party.
“While the party leadership claims a ‘zero tolerance approach’ to all forms of discrimination, our findings show that discriminatory behaviours occur, especially in relation to people of Islamic faith.”
But the investigation did not find evidence of a party which “systematically discriminated against any particular group”.
The review process has been regarded with scepticism by some critics, with the Muslim Council of Britain warning it would be a whitewash.
But Prof Singh said: “I hope fair minded people who read the report will see that we haven’t shied away from criticising the party.
“In fact, this is going to be very uncomfortable for the party, I hope it makes them uncomfortable, I hope it makes the rank and file uncomfortable and it also spurs them into action.”
In a message to Mr Johnson, Prof Singh said: “As the leader of the Conservative Party, I would say lead by example and accept our recommendations unequivocally. Accept them unconditionally. Implement them and get someone to monitor the implementation.”
The report called on the Tories to introduce sweeping changes to the complaints process, publishing an action plan within six weeks to set out how it will respond, followed by a six-month progress report and a one-year review carried out by an appropriate body.
Within six weeks, the party should review its social media rules and within six months develop training on “acceptable” behaviour online.
Within a year, the report said the party should produce and implement a single, mandatory code of conduct across the entire membership in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
A Conservative Party spokesperson said: “The Party is considering the recommendations set out by the report. We will respond later today.”
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