UK Conservative Party Faces Allegations of Rising Islamophobia, Report Finds

The independent report on discrimination within the British Conservative party, published on Tuesday, concluded that the party is at the heart of a problem of Islamophobia both nationally and locally. In this document, around 1,418 complaints of discrimination were analyzed. These complaints were sent to the Conservatives between 2015 and 2020 and related to 727 incidents, two-thirds of which were related to Muslims. Thus, "anti-Muslim sentiment remains a problem within the party. This is detrimental to the party and diverts a significant part of society," the report stated, noting that "institutional racism" was not observed in the handling of complaints, according to Le Point.

This study had been entrusted to Professor of Psychology Swaran Singh, a former member of a national equality commission, in December 2019, after the party’s landslide victory in the general election, following acts of Islamophobia of which the party is accused, in order to shed some light on the matter. Indeed, even Prime Minister Boris Johnson was accused of having written in 2018, as Foreign Secretary, an article in which he likened Muslim women wearing the full veil to "letter boxes" or "bank robbers". But the leader has since backtracked and apologized if his words may have been hurtful.

For Sayeeda Warsi, a member of the House of Lords, the report is revealing of "a party at best incapable of dealing with the problem of racism, at worst reluctant to do so". However, the Conservative party is keen to analyze the recommendations contained in the report, especially by improving the complaints management system, in order to handle complaints with full transparency, adopt a precise code of conduct for all members, and implement training and a revision of the rules on social networks, said a Conservative party spokesperson. This is also what former Home Secretary Sajid Javid, the son of Muslim Pakistani immigrants, has called on his party to do.