Allegations of Islamophobia in the UK Conservative Party have been made, including against senior politicians, such as Boris Johnson, Michael Gove and Zac Goldsmith. Baroness Warsi, former co-chair of the Conservative Party, said in 2018 that anti-Muslim prejudice had "poisoned" the party. Many Muslim party members welcomed Warsi's comments, saying that they felt the issue had been marginalised within the party.
In 2019, the prime minister Boris Johnson ordered a report into how the party dealt with accusations of Islamophobia and racism. The final report, released in May 2021, said that anti-Muslim views were seen at local association and individual levels, that comments made by Goldsmith and Johnson "give an impression to some of a party and leadership insensitive to Muslim communities" and that the Conservatives' complaints team was "in need of overhaul", but denied that the party was institutionally racist.
Background Islamophobia as a topic of specific analysis "first entered the British political space" following the publication of Islamophobia: A Challenge for us all by the Runnymede Trust on behalf of the Commission on British Muslims and Islamophobia, published in 1997 to coincide with the election of Tony Blair's New Labour government (1997–2010). Although the Human Rights Act 1998 and Equality and Human Rights Commission (both originating under New Labour) protected freedom of religion, Islamophobia was rarely discussed or called out as a specific area of concern in the New Labour years, especially following 9/11.
Incidents
2000s In October 2001, former prime minister Lady Margaret Thatcher was accused of Islamophobia when she said "I have not heard enough condemnation [of 9/11] from Muslim priests". Zaki Badawi, then chairman of the Imams and Mosques Council said Thatcher "has always been detached from minority communities. That statement from a person of her stature will give encouragement to extremists to harass our community further". Baroness Pola Uddin said Thatcher was "completely out of touch with reality. Perhaps she's forgotten that when they were part of the mojahedin, she was one of the Taliban's best international champions" and Gurbux Singh, chairman of the Commission for Racial Equality, urged Thatcher to "speak with care and dignity", adding "Those who criticise the response of Muslim leaders are either unaware of the strength of their condemnation or have been misled by the media exposure given to one or two extremists."
Conservative politician Michael Gove's 2006 book on the supposed roots of Islamist extremism, Celsius 7/7, was criticised when it was published for "holding apparent hostile opinions towards Muslims", according to Richard Vaughan in the i.
2010 election Baroness Sayeeda Warsi (then co-chair of the Conservative Party) prioritised combating middle-class Islamophobia in her famous "dinner-table" speech, which said that Islamophobia has "passed the dinner table test" (i.e. that such prejudice was acceptable in polite company). This led the Coalition to support the creation of an All-Party Parliamentary Group on Islamophobia, and establish the Cross-Government Working Group on Anti-Muslim Hatred. However, the decision to use 'Anti-Muslim Hate', rather than 'Islamophobia' for the Working Group was in response to a report by the Quilliam Foundation, who said that Islamophobia had been exploited by "Islamists and Wahhabis", and using such a term would be a "propaganda coup" to these individuals. No evidence exists to substantiate Quilliam's claims.
Mayoral campaigns (2012–2016) In 2012, Lynton Crosby was reported as saying that Boris Johnson's mayoral campaign should not get try to gain support from "fucking Muslims", instead focusing on wavering voters in the outer suburbs.
In 2016, the Conservative Party faced criticism for running a supposedly Islamophobic campaign promoting Zac Goldsmith for London mayor by smearing Labour's mayoral candidate, Sadiq Khan, also under the direction of Crosby as election strategist. Concerns were first raised that Goldsmith's campaign was attempting to divide communities after flyers targeting Hindu voters suggested Khan would implement a tax on jewellery. As the campaign progressed, Goldsmith questioned Khan's associations with alleged extremists before he became an MP. Prime Minister David Cameron used parliamentary privilege to link Khan to Suliman Gani, who Cameron alleged was a supporter of the terrorist Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) or the Islamic State. Gani was in fact a Conservative supporter who opposed the terror group and instead was a supporter of an Islamic state based on Islamic principles. Cameron later apologised for the slur, and former Defence Secretary Michael Fallon also apologised and paid compensation for making similar remarks about Gani.
Senior Conservatives, including Baroness Warsi, former chancellor Kenneth Clarke and Andrew Boff, the Conservative group leader of the Greater London assembly condemned Goldsmith for painting Khan as an extremist and a risk to UK security. Warsi said Goldsmith should receive "mandatory diversity training" following his comments, and the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) said the campaign was an example of Tory "dog whistle anti-Muslim racism".
Shaun Bailey, the Conservative candidate for the 2020 London mayoral election, wrote a pamphlet in 2005 for the Centre for Policy Studies complaining that immigrants to the UK being allowed to "bring their culture, their country and any problems they might have with them" and observing non-Christian festivals has turned Britain into a "crime-ridden cesspool" and "robs Britain of its community". In September 2018, he shared a tweet referring to Labour's incumbent Mayor of London Sadiq Khan as "mad mullah Khan of Londonistan".
2010s In 2011 Prime Minister David Cameron made a speech criticising some British Muslim groups of "passive tolerance" of extremism, saying: "some organisations that seek to present themselves as a gateway to the Muslim community are showered with public money while doing little to combat extremism. This is like turning to a rightwing fascist party to fight a violent white supremacist movement." Anti-extremist groups such as Muslims4Uk criticised Cameron's remarks, calling them "ill-judged and deeply patronising. The overwhelming majority of UK Muslims are proud to be British and are appalled by the antics of a tiny group of extremists". Sadiq Khan, then the shadow justice secretary, said the speech was tantamount to "writing propaganda for the English Defence League". Patrick Wintour said in The Guardian that "it is clear one target [of Cameron's reproach] is the Muslim Council of Britain ... His remarks suggest that a Home Office-led review into the government Prevent programme, being overseen by Lord Carlile, is going to lead to major changes. It also suggests that he has sided unambiguously with figures such as Michael Gove inside his cabinet rather than his party chairman, Lady Warsi, who has complained of fashionable Islamophobia."
Baroness Warsi said in 2018 that she had joked that Gove's views "radicalised" Cameron into pursuing anti-Muslim terror policies. Additionally, Gove's 2014 accusation of a "Trojan Horse" Islamist conspiracy in Britain's schools was criticised by Tahir Alam (head of the Park View Educational Trust at the centre of the controversy), who said Gove had a "profound mistrust of Islam".
In 2018, Conservative MP Michael Fabricant apologised for tweeting a photoshopped image depicting a balloon caricature of Sadiq Khan (mimicking the Trump baby balloon during the president's visit to the UK) having sex with a pig. The image was condemned by Hope not Hate as well as Warsi. Labour MP Wes Streeting raised the issue with the government's chief whip. No action was taken against Fabricant.
In October 2018, recently selected London Mayoral candidate Shaun Bailey was accused of Islamophobia and Hinduphobia after it was reported that had written a pamphlet in 2005, entitled No Man's Land, for the Centre for Policy Studies. In it, Bailey argued that accommodating Muslims and Hindus is one factor which "[robs] Britain of its community" and that the collapse of community is turning country into a "crime riddled cess pool". He claimed that South Asians "bring their culture, their country and any problems they might have, with them" and that this was not a problem within the black community "because we've shared a religion and in many cases a language".
In March 2019, Warsi accused Home Secretary Sajid Javid of anti-Muslim "dog-whistle politics", and claimed that members of the Conservative Party opposed his leadership ambitions as he was perceived to be "too Muslim" by senior Conservatives. That same month, Andrea Leadsom, the leader of the House of Commons, was criticised from both sides of the aisle after suggesting that addressing abuse in Britain against British Muslims was a matter for the Foreign Office.
Boris Johnson
Former Prime Minister Boris Johnson was criticised for his comments in an appendix added to a later edition of his 2005 book about the Roman empire, The Dream of Rome, which said that Islam caused the Muslim world to be "literally centuries behind" the west. Writing in a column in The Daily Telegraph in August 2018, Johnson made comments about Islamic full-face coverings (i.e. the burqa and the niqab) while criticising Denmark's decision to ban anyone from wearing a "garment that hides the face" in public places. He said women wearing them look like "letterboxes" and "bank robbers". The Equality and Human Rights Commission and Prime Minister Theresa May criticised these remarks, which led to Johnson facing an investigation by the party to determine whether his remarks breached the Tory code of conduct on Islamophobia. The MCB accused Johnson of "pandering to the far right" saying the comments were "particularly regrettable in this current climate, where Islamophobia and anti-Muslim hatred is becoming worryingly pervasive". Johnson's comments led to a number of Islamophobic messages being left on his Facebook page by his followers. At the same time, The Times revealed that "Tory councillors, officials and agents" were also found to be members of anti-Islam Facebook groups. Writing for Vox, Jennifer Williams linked Johnson's comments with wider anti-Muslim sentiment across Europe, and research by Tell MAMA in 2019 revealed that Islamophobic incidents increased 375% following the article's publication. Four cabinet ministers backed Johnson's comments and criticised May and the party leadership for a "cack-handed" investigation into his comments. In December, an independent panel led by Naomi Ellenbogen QC found that Johnson's use of language could be considered provocative but was not contrary to the party rules, which did not "override an individual's right to freedom of expression". The panel said it would be "unwise to censor excessively the language of party representatives or the use of satire to emphasise a viewpoint, particularly a viewpoint that is not subject to criticism".
Rejecting motion of censure against Viktor Orban (2018) In 2018, following Conservative MEPs support of the Hungarian leader Viktor Orbán against a motion to censure him in the European Parliament, the Muslim Council of Britain said the Conservative Party was giving "bigotry a free pass" and viewing the rights of minorities, including Muslims, as "expendable as support is sought for the government's Brexit position". Conservative sources told The Independent that the opposition to the vote was to gain "brownie points" from Orban's regime to make him more amenable to a post-Brexit trade deal. The Conservatives were the only governing conservative party in western Europe to vote against the censure.