Prime Minister Boris Johnson has ordered a Cabinet Office inquiry into claims made by a Muslim MP who says her faith was given as a reason for her sacking as a minister in 2020.
Nusrat Ghani said a government whip said her "Muslimness was raised as an issue". Photo: 2021 Anadolu Agency via AFP
Nusrat Ghani said a government whip said her "Muslimness was raised as an issue", according to the Sunday Times.
The Conservative MP welcomed the inquiry, saying all she wanted was for the matter to be taken seriously.
Conservative Chief Whip Mark Spencer says the claims are completely false.
He has said Ghani was referring to him and that he considered her allegations to be defamatory.
Responding to news of the inquiry, Ghani said: "As I said to the prime minister last night all I want is for this to be taken seriously and for him to investigate.
"I welcome his decision to do that now. The terms of reference of the inquiry must include all that was said in Downing Street and by the Whip. I look forward to seeing the terms of reference."
A No 10 spokesperson said: "At the time these allegations were first made, the prime minister recommended to her that she make a formal complaint to CCHQ [Conservative Campaign Headquarters]. She did not take up this offer.
"The prime minister has now asked officials to establish the facts about what happened.
"As he said at the time, the prime minister takes these claims very seriously."
Speaking on Sunday, Ghani said when she was previously invited to use the internal Conservative Party complaint process, she did not because it was "very clearly not appropriate for something that happened on government business".
'Action rarely taken'
Conservative peer Baroness Sayeeda Warsi said Ghani should never have been asked to go through the party's complaint process.
"This allegation relates to comments made in Downing Street, not Conservative headquarters; it relates to a job in government, not a job in the Conservative Party; the allegations were made by the chief whip, not by the chief executive or chairman of the party," she told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.
"This was not a party issue, this was a government issue."
She welcomed the inquiry but said it should have been announced two years ago, not once Ghani had gone to the media with her allegations.
Baroness Warsi, the first Muslim woman to attend Cabinet, said Ghani's experience had been "an open secret in Westminster" and that she had "struggled to be heard" for nearly two years.
The former party chair said that she believed there was a "pattern" with Islamophobia in the Conservative party, where "Islamophobic racism is not viewed as seriously as other forms of racism" and "action is rarely taken until the media is involved".
Ghani was appointed to a post at the Department for Transport in 2018, becoming the first female Muslim minister to speak in the Commons.
She lost that job in a mini-reshuffle of Johnson's government in February 2020.
Speaking to the Sunday Times, Ghani said that when she asked for an explanation, a government whip had told her that "Muslimness was raised as an issue" during discussions about the reshuffle, and her status as a "Muslim woman... was making colleagues uncomfortable".
The Wealden MP is quoted as saying she dropped the matter after being told that if she "persisted" in asking about it she "would be ostracised and her career and reputation would be destroyed".
- BBC