SHE WAS FIRED FROM MINISTER JOB FOR HER ‘MUSLIMNESS’, UK MP SAYS

Sun 23 January 2022:

According to the Sunday Times newspaper, a British member of parliament claims she was removed from a ministerial role in Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Conservative government partially because her Muslim faith made colleagues uncomfortable.

Nusrat Ghani, 49, who was fired from her role as a junior transport minister in February 2020, told the paper that a whip had told her – that her “Muslimness” had been raised as an issue.

“I was told that at the reshuffle meeting in Downing Street that ‘Muslimness’ was raised as an ‘issue’, that my ‘Muslim woman minister’ status was making colleagues uncomfortable,” the paper quoted Ghani, Britain’s first female Muslim minister, as saying.

“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.”

There was no immediate response to her comments from the prime minister’s office, but Mark Spencer, the government’s chief whip, said he was the person at the centre of Ghani’s allegations.

“These accusations are completely false and I consider them to be defamatory,” he said on Twitter. “I have never used those words attributed to me.”

Ghani’s claims should be properly investigated if she makes a formal complaint, Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab said on Sunday.

“We have absolutely zero tolerance for any discrimination, and any Islamophobia, in the Conservative Party,” Raab told Sky News on Sunday. “A claim like this, as serious as it is, should be properly reported, and then a proper investigation (should take place).”

The Conservative Party has been accused of Islamophobia in the past, and a study released in May of last year criticized it for how it handled allegations of prejudice against Muslims.

Following the publication of the study, Johnson issued a qualified apology for any offence caused by his previous remarks about Islam, including a newspaper piece in which he described women wearing burqas as “going around looking like letterboxes.”

Main opposition Labour leader Keir Starmer said the Conservatives must investigate Ghani’s account immediately.

“This is shocking to read,” he said on Twitter.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

FOLLOW INDEPENDENT PRESS:

TWITTER (CLICK HERE)
https://twitter.com/IpIndependent