Tory Minister Accused Of Islamophobia Is To Face No Further Action, Says Sunak

Kate Devlin, Jon Stone

- Kate Devlin, Jon Stone

A Conservative minister will face no further action over accusations of Islamophobia, Rishi Sunak has announced. The prime minister’s ethics adviser Sir Laurie Magnus said it was not possible to determine whether Mark Spencer made comments about Tory MP Nusrat Ghani’s faith during a 2020 government reshuffle. Mr Sunak said the investigation had been “an unsatisfactory experience for both ministers involved”.

But the prime minister’s adviser Sir Laurie criticised “shortcomings” in minister Mark Spencer’s response to her Islamophobia allegations. He should have “taken more care” over a series of tweets in which he “implied without evidence” that a previous investigation “had considered and dismissed Ms Ghani’s concerns”, Sir Laurie said.

Last year Ms Ghani said that when she lost her job as a transport minister she had been told that her “Muslimness” had been raised as a problem. She accused Boris Johnson’s Downing Street of holding her to a “higher threshold of loyalty than others because of my background and faith”.

In an interview with The Sunday Times, she said: “It was like being punched in the stomach. I felt humiliated and powerless. 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.