The Conservative Party has been able to attack the Labour Party on the subject/scourge of antisemitism. Keir Starmer has, however, fought hard and taken significant and positive action to root it out. There is, without doubt, more to do as evidenced by some recent incidents but at least the Labour Party is doing something about it.
Islamophobia
The Conservative Party, by contrast seems to have islamophobia, extremism and hatred running deep within it and doesn’t seem to care. Just this last week;
- Suella Braverman states in a newspaper article that “Islamists are now in control of the UK”, blatantly throwing red meat to the racists, bigots and islamophobic sections of society.
- Liz Truss shares a platform with Steve Bannon who calls Tommy Robinson a hero. She goes on to say she is hoping a republican will soon be in the White House. Given that Trump is the overwhelming favourite to be their candidate, I think it is fair to say that she is wanting him to be that republican. Now that’s scary, as Trump has consistently used racist and islamophobic language.
- Lee Anderson comes out with outright islamophobia regarding London Mayor, Sadiq Khan.
Speaking on GB News Mr Anderson said:
“I don’t actually believe that the Islamists have got control of our country, but what I do believe is they’ve got control of Khan and they’ve got control of London… He’s actually given our capital city away to his mates.”
Braverman and Anderson have a large back catalogue of hate filled quotes, however Truss is a relatively new arrival in the hate stakes.
If the people saying and doing these things were anonymous backbenchers and were quickly booted out of the Conservative Party, then we could possibly have confidence that Sunak is at least as strong on islamophobia and extremism as Starmer has been with his approach to antisemitism.
But, no…we have a former Home Secretary and former Deputy Chairman of the Party, both of whom were appointed by Sunak, and a former Prime Minister.
What did Sunak do?
In essence nothing.
Anderson was asked to apologise, but refused so had the whip withdrawn.
Apparently, an apology would suffice…you really couldn’t make it up.
It’s safe to assume that if Anderson says sorry he will be welcomed back into the fold post-haste, even if it is blatantly obvious that he believes the disgusting things he keeps coming out with.
Incredibly when Sunak eventually talked about extremism and antisemitism he failed to mention islamophobia. He never mentioned Truss or Braverman so I can only assume he believes that they represent the Conservative Party and its values.
Those values must now include islamophobia, extremism and hatred.
Put that on a poster, Sunak!
