The news that 14 Conservative members were suspended this week, alongside the reinstatement of Peter Lamb, a Conservative council candidate in Harlow (who then resigned on Tuesday), demonstrates that the party has a significant amount of work to do to counter anti-Muslim hate. Lamb had previously tweeted: “Islam [is] like alcoholism. The first step to recovery is to admit that you have a problem.” Yet he was reintroduced into the party to be a council candidate.
Sadly, as the founder and former director of the hate-crime reporting project Tell Mama, I know that views such as these have been picked up and circulated among groups that vehemently dislike Muslims. There has been a steady drip of cases of anti-Muslim bigotry in statements made by party members and councillors. Serving Conservative councillors such as Hashim Bhatti have talked about a deeper problem within the party, and the chair of the Conservative Muslim Forum, Mohammed Amin, said that the party has failed to take action against anti-Muslim bigotry.
Over the past two years, both Labour and the Conservatives have become embroiled in issues of antisemitism and anti-Muslim bigotry. There is something deeper at work within both parties, and it goes far beyond how quickly someone is suspended or not. The key question to be addressed by the Conservatives is: how has a culture of anti-Muslim hate seeped into some party members and councillors? Why have they thought it acceptable to make social media posts that caricature Muslims as the “other”, as threats and as people undeserving of basic respect? How did it reach this point, given that the prime minister claims to care about collective shared values between communities?
I met with the chair of the Conservative party, Brandon Lewis, some seven months ago to discuss anti-Muslim bigotry. He was receptive and seemed to want to take action. During the meeting I made it clear that real change could come only from working with the affected associations; it was plain that there had previously been an “arms-length” approach to local Conservative associations, with many of them being fiercely independent. It was also clear that Lewis had to traverse this path with some sensitivity, while ensuring that he demonstrated some rigour in dealing with cases of anti-Muslim bigotry. I felt that he wanted to make a change but that his hands were somehow tied by local associations feeling “put upon”, and with Brexit in the background.
I suggested support, training and system tests to check how complaints on issues of racism and bigotry were managed and dealt with. Allied to this, I also suggested that something needed to be done – and quickly – so that people could see a transparent process involving independent individuals who could volunteer to work on this issue. I also suggested that there was much that the Conservatives had said and done on the need to tackle anti-Muslim hate, though they were exceptionally poor at promoting their achievements and in building trust with Muslim communities. For example, Conservative ministers such as James Brokenshire, Lord Nicholas Bourne and Baroness Susan Williams have been fierce advocates against anti-Muslim bigotry and antisemitism. The meeting ended and – though a further meeting was planned – it was clear to me that the party wanted to address issues internally and with no support. This indicated to me that they were not interested in help from beyond their internal structures – a route that is likely to cause them further problems in the future.
As someone who served as a Liberal Democrat councillor from 2002-10, I know what political parties do when they have charges made against them on issues of race, culture or religion. They start to navel-gaze and look inwards at a time when they need to be outward-looking, confident and able to engage with specialists to fix the problem. This internalisation is a fatal mistake since it is based on damage limitation rather than on addressing the source of the problem. In the case of the Conservatives, this has played out in the public gaze, as it has done with Labour on antisemitism and as it did with the Lib Dems when they were accused of racism in the early 90s.
This week Baroness Warsi accused the Conservative party of being “institutionally racist”. It is a serious charge and she is not alone in her criticisms. Speak to key Conservative activists who are Muslim and there is a sense of disappointment. The only path forward is to ask for help.
Labour has failed to ask leading Jewish groups such as the Community Security Trust and the Board of Deputies of British Jews to help tackle antisemitism, seeking to rectify it internally instead – and that has lost it significant support within Jewish communities. Similarly, the Conservatives must get external help to repair their relationship with Muslim communities. One of Islam’s values is to trust in humanity and the common good. The Tories need to engage with these hands of help and show the world that hate has no place in our political system.