A Conservative MP has accused a party whip of telling her she was fired from her ministerial job because her Muslim faith was “making colleagues uncomfortable”.
Nusrat Ghani, 49, was sacked as a transport minister in a mini-reshuffle in February 2020. She claimed she was told by a whip that her “‘Muslimness was raised as an issue” at a meeting in Downing Street and that her “Muslim women minister status was making colleagues feel uncomfortable”.
“It was like being punched in the stomach,” she said. “I felt humiliated and powerless.”
Ghani, vice-chairwoman of the 1922 Committee of Tory backbenchers, claimed she kept quiet after being warned that if she continued to raise the issue she would be “ostracised by colleagues” and her “career and reputation would be destroyed”.
She said she had since considered whether she wants to continue being an MP, adding: “I will not pretend that this hasn’t shaken my faith in the party.”
There isa growing scandal over the behaviour of government whips towards their party colleagues. William Wragg, a backbench MP, is meeting police this week to discuss allegations that No 10 tried to blackmail MPs.
Chris Bryant, Labour chairman of the Commons standards committee, said he had spoken to “about a dozen” Tories in recent days who claimed they had either been bribed or threatened by government whips. They are said to have been warned that public money would be withdrawn from their constituencies if they defied the government, or poured in if they voted “the right way”.
Ghani’s claims will also reignite allegations that the Conservative Party is institutionally Islamophobic. A report on the claims published two years ago was dismissed as a “whitewash” by Muslim Tories, including Baroness Warsi, the peer and former party chairwoman.
Ghani claimed that: “When the prime minister told me he wanted me to leave my government post in the February 2020 reshuffle I was surprised but understood that it was a fact of politics.
“At the post-reshuffle meeting with the whips I asked what the thinking was behind the decision to fire me and what the mood music was when my name was mentioned in No 10 concerning the reshuffle. I was told that at the reshuffle meeting in Downing Street that ‘Muslimness’ was raised as an ‘issue’, that my ‘Muslim women minister’ status was making colleagues uncomfortable and that there were concerns ‘that I wasn’t loyal to the party as I didn’t do enough to defend the party against Islamophobia allegations’.
“When I challenged whether this was in any way acceptable and made clear there was little I could do about my identity, I had to listen to a monologue on how hard it was to define when people are being racist and that the party doesn’t have a problem and I needed to do more to defend it.
“It was very clear to me that the whips and No 10 were holding me to a higher threshold of loyalty than others because of my background and faith.”
The Conservative MP for Wealden in East Sussex, who was the first Muslim woman to be elected as a Tory MP, in 2015, had a second meeting with a whip in March 2020.
She said: “In this second meeting I was again told there was no Islamophobia in the party and, as if to add to the issue they had with me I was told that I was in fact fired for apparently saying to the PM that we had a ‘women problem’ (attracting female voters).
“In the following weeks, I was informed that if I persisted in raising this that I would be ostracised by colleagues and my career and reputation would be destroyed.
“The feeling of isolation and powerlessness after this episode would not leave me and I raised it several more times through official party channels and with some colleagues. However, after the threats from whips, I was extremely careful to follow procedure, and when the procedure ran out of road I had no choice but to get on with my career and make a difference for my constituents and for the issues I care about from the back benches.”
Before he was prime minister, in a 2018 column for The Daily Telegraph, Boris Johnson compared Muslim women wearing the burqa to “letterboxes” and “bank robbers” . He apologised for the remarks in December 2019, days before the general election.
The report on Islamophobia in the party, from May 2020, found no evidence of “institutional Islamophobia”, but did criticise the language used by Johnson and Zac Goldsmith’s 2016 London mayoral campaign as insensitive.
Goldsmith was accused of trying to smear Labour’s winning candidate, Sadiq Khan, as a “closet extremist”, with the chairman of the Conservative Muslim Forum, Mohammed Amin, calling the attacks “disgust[ing]” and “risible”.
Lady Warsi, the party’s former chairwoman who first called for an inquiry into anti-Islamic prejudice, disagreed with the review’s conclusion that there was no evidence of institutional racism, and said that there were issues “from the top … to the bottom” of the party.
Sajjad Karim, a former MEP, alleged that Muslim members of the Conservative Party were deliberately excluded from the inquiry. Karim, who represented North-West England in the European parliament, described the complaints procedure as “not fit for purpose”.
Ghani grew up in a working class neighbourhood in Birmingham and says she “was expected to be married quite young and live in social housing”. Instead she became an MP and then a minister until her 2020 sacking in the mini-reshuffle which followed the Sajid Javid’s resignation as chancellor.
She said: “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. However, I will not let them win and force me out of politics. I have also been concerned at the consequences of this coming out for my security and that of my family, but I always knew there would be a time when I had to explain what happened to me.
“I also have an obligation to my party not to bury this incident. As one colleague reflected, ‘if you are too Muslim, then we are all stuffed’. My party is bigger and better than this and this whole sorry episode has only been bearable due to the steadfast support of colleagues.”
She added: “I have had to deal with threats based on my faith and race since being an MP and last month a man was arrested.”
A former MP said: “Nusrat has spoken with me about these experiences on numerous occasions over the past 18 months. Despite the unimaginable toll these events have taken, I have been struck by Nusrat’s courage and fortitude to try and challenge the system from within. And how despite it all she’s managed to do so much from the back benches, so much so, she’s personally been sanctioned by China.”
A Brexiteer, Ghani voted for the second Covid-19 lockdown but is a steering committee member of the Covid Recovery Group, a group of Tory MPs who opposed the December 2020 lockdown.
The mother of one, who has been married for two decades, has been outspoken on violent extremism, challenging the Taliban and Daesh, and human rights abuses in China. She was one of five MPs sanctioned by the Chinese Communist Party for speaking out about the treatment of the Uyghurs, a predominantly Muslim minority in the country.
In April last year, she tabled a motion before the House of Commons declaring that parliament recognises that China was perpetrating genocide and crimes against humanity against the Uighurs, which was passed unanimously.
A government source close to the Whips office strenuously denied the allegation.
*Caroline Wheeler, Rosamund Urwin and Gabriel Pogrund*
Saturday January 22 2022, 6.40pm, The Sunday Times
EHRC investigation into Tory institutional Islamophobia when?
I’ve had the displeasure of living in Ghani’s constituency. She’s a career politician in a cushy conservative area who does not give a flying fuck about anything but her personal gain.
While transport minister she lobbied hard for a company that just happened to give her a little extra on the side:
She’s incompetent and very cheap to buy, regardless of her faith.
At this point in time, I really don’t care what the reason or motive to throw mud at Tories is as long as it helps to get rid of them. This government doesn’t deserve an ounce of fairness.
I thought she was sacked cos she was shit at her job
I don’t believe her 1%…. Actually 1% is too much 0.00000000000000000000001% , stopped only because I’m tired of putting the 0s
Playing religious card when lost the job and when took the job showing it off as a proud thing as women empowerment specially from an oppressed state and jazz ..
She’s full of shit.
Why wait almost 2 years to make this public? Also she was invited to raise a formal complaint at the time and declined.
Trying to cash I’m on the current political climate by throwing accusations around you know can’t be disproved.
7 comments
A Conservative MP has accused a party whip of telling her she was fired from her ministerial job because her Muslim faith was “making colleagues uncomfortable”.
Nusrat Ghani, 49, was sacked as a transport minister in a mini-reshuffle in February 2020. She claimed she was told by a whip that her “‘Muslimness was raised as an issue” at a meeting in Downing Street and that her “Muslim women minister status was making colleagues feel uncomfortable”.
“It was like being punched in the stomach,” she said. “I felt humiliated and powerless.”
Ghani, vice-chairwoman of the 1922 Committee of Tory backbenchers, claimed she kept quiet after being warned that if she continued to raise the issue she would be “ostracised by colleagues” and her “career and reputation would be destroyed”.
She said she had since considered whether she wants to continue being an MP, adding: “I will not pretend that this hasn’t shaken my faith in the party.”
There isa growing scandal over the behaviour of government whips towards their party colleagues. William Wragg, a backbench MP, is meeting police this week to discuss allegations that No 10 tried to blackmail MPs.
Chris Bryant, Labour chairman of the Commons standards committee, said he had spoken to “about a dozen” Tories in recent days who claimed they had either been bribed or threatened by government whips. They are said to have been warned that public money would be withdrawn from their constituencies if they defied the government, or poured in if they voted “the right way”.
Ghani’s claims will also reignite allegations that the Conservative Party is institutionally Islamophobic. A report on the claims published two years ago was dismissed as a “whitewash” by Muslim Tories, including Baroness Warsi, the peer and former party chairwoman.
Ghani claimed that: “When the prime minister told me he wanted me to leave my government post in the February 2020 reshuffle I was surprised but understood that it was a fact of politics.
“At the post-reshuffle meeting with the whips I asked what the thinking was behind the decision to fire me and what the mood music was when my name was mentioned in No 10 concerning the reshuffle. I was told that at the reshuffle meeting in Downing Street that ‘Muslimness’ was raised as an ‘issue’, that my ‘Muslim women minister’ status was making colleagues uncomfortable and that there were concerns ‘that I wasn’t loyal to the party as I didn’t do enough to defend the party against Islamophobia allegations’.
“When I challenged whether this was in any way acceptable and made clear there was little I could do about my identity, I had to listen to a monologue on how hard it was to define when people are being racist and that the party doesn’t have a problem and I needed to do more to defend it.
“It was very clear to me that the whips and No 10 were holding me to a higher threshold of loyalty than others because of my background and faith.”
The Conservative MP for Wealden in East Sussex, who was the first Muslim woman to be elected as a Tory MP, in 2015, had a second meeting with a whip in March 2020.
She said: “In this second meeting I was again told there was no Islamophobia in the party and, as if to add to the issue they had with me I was told that I was in fact fired for apparently saying to the PM that we had a ‘women problem’ (attracting female voters).
“In the following weeks, I was informed that if I persisted in raising this that I would be ostracised by colleagues and my career and reputation would be destroyed.
“The feeling of isolation and powerlessness after this episode would not leave me and I raised it several more times through official party channels and with some colleagues. However, after the threats from whips, I was extremely careful to follow procedure, and when the procedure ran out of road I had no choice but to get on with my career and make a difference for my constituents and for the issues I care about from the back benches.”
Before he was prime minister, in a 2018 column for The Daily Telegraph, Boris Johnson compared Muslim women wearing the burqa to “letterboxes” and “bank robbers” . He apologised for the remarks in December 2019, days before the general election.
The report on Islamophobia in the party, from May 2020, found no evidence of “institutional Islamophobia”, but did criticise the language used by Johnson and Zac Goldsmith’s 2016 London mayoral campaign as insensitive.
Goldsmith was accused of trying to smear Labour’s winning candidate, Sadiq Khan, as a “closet extremist”, with the chairman of the Conservative Muslim Forum, Mohammed Amin, calling the attacks “disgust[ing]” and “risible”.
Lady Warsi, the party’s former chairwoman who first called for an inquiry into anti-Islamic prejudice, disagreed with the review’s conclusion that there was no evidence of institutional racism, and said that there were issues “from the top … to the bottom” of the party.
Sajjad Karim, a former MEP, alleged that Muslim members of the Conservative Party were deliberately excluded from the inquiry. Karim, who represented North-West England in the European parliament, described the complaints procedure as “not fit for purpose”.
Ghani grew up in a working class neighbourhood in Birmingham and says she “was expected to be married quite young and live in social housing”. Instead she became an MP and then a minister until her 2020 sacking in the mini-reshuffle which followed the Sajid Javid’s resignation as chancellor.
She said: “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. However, I will not let them win and force me out of politics. I have also been concerned at the consequences of this coming out for my security and that of my family, but I always knew there would be a time when I had to explain what happened to me.
“I also have an obligation to my party not to bury this incident. As one colleague reflected, ‘if you are too Muslim, then we are all stuffed’. My party is bigger and better than this and this whole sorry episode has only been bearable due to the steadfast support of colleagues.”
She added: “I have had to deal with threats based on my faith and race since being an MP and last month a man was arrested.”
A former MP said: “Nusrat has spoken with me about these experiences on numerous occasions over the past 18 months. Despite the unimaginable toll these events have taken, I have been struck by Nusrat’s courage and fortitude to try and challenge the system from within. And how despite it all she’s managed to do so much from the back benches, so much so, she’s personally been sanctioned by China.”
A Brexiteer, Ghani voted for the second Covid-19 lockdown but is a steering committee member of the Covid Recovery Group, a group of Tory MPs who opposed the December 2020 lockdown.
The mother of one, who has been married for two decades, has been outspoken on violent extremism, challenging the Taliban and Daesh, and human rights abuses in China. She was one of five MPs sanctioned by the Chinese Communist Party for speaking out about the treatment of the Uyghurs, a predominantly Muslim minority in the country.
In April last year, she tabled a motion before the House of Commons declaring that parliament recognises that China was perpetrating genocide and crimes against humanity against the Uighurs, which was passed unanimously.
A government source close to the Whips office strenuously denied the allegation.
*Caroline Wheeler, Rosamund Urwin and Gabriel Pogrund*
Saturday January 22 2022, 6.40pm, The Sunday Times
EHRC investigation into Tory institutional Islamophobia when?
I’ve had the displeasure of living in Ghani’s constituency. She’s a career politician in a cushy conservative area who does not give a flying fuck about anything but her personal gain.
While transport minister she lobbied hard for a company that just happened to give her a little extra on the side:
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/oct/08/former-tory-minister-criticised-for-new-job-at-firm-she-lobbied-for
She’s incompetent and very cheap to buy, regardless of her faith.
At this point in time, I really don’t care what the reason or motive to throw mud at Tories is as long as it helps to get rid of them. This government doesn’t deserve an ounce of fairness.
I thought she was sacked cos she was shit at her job
I don’t believe her 1%…. Actually 1% is too much 0.00000000000000000000001% , stopped only because I’m tired of putting the 0s
Playing religious card when lost the job and when took the job showing it off as a proud thing as women empowerment specially from an oppressed state and jazz ..
She’s full of shit.
Why wait almost 2 years to make this public? Also she was invited to raise a formal complaint at the time and declined.
Trying to cash I’m on the current political climate by throwing accusations around you know can’t be disproved.