Conservative Islamophobia has been blamed on incompetence. Is that credible?

A review commissioned by Boris Johnson into Islamophobia within the Conservative Party found that it “remains a problem” – but that allegations of institutional racism were not borne out by the evidence from the complaints system.

“We found no attitudes or behaviours within the complaints process or relating to the imposition of sanctions by the party that were discriminatory against any group or individual possessing a protected characteristic, including those with the protected characteristic of being Muslim,” the report by Professor Swaran Singh found.

But the probe failed to satisfy critics, some of whom branded it “a whitewash” and called for the Equality and Human Rights Commission to launch its own investigation.

Between 2015 and 2020, the party’s central database recorded 1,418 complaints concerning 727 incidents of alleged discrimination, and two-thirds of all incidents related to allegations of anti-Muslim discrimination, the report found.

Another serious problem is that many of those who volunteer for the party are not formal members and hence not bound by the party’s codes in the event of a complaint being launched.

An overwhelming majority of evidenced complaints lodged with the Conservative Campaign Headquarters complaints team were upheld and resulted in a sanction (231). Yet just 50 per cent of these were a suspension and only one resulted in an apology.

The Conservatives issued an apology of sorts following the publication of the report. The party’s co-chair Amanda Milling said it was sorry to “anyone who has been hurt by discriminatory behaviour of others or failed by our system.”

Some campaigners said the gesture was mealy-mouthed in light of Johnson’s 2018 column for The Daily Telegraph in which he described Muslim women who wear the burqa as looking like “letterboxes” and “bank robbers”.

“For years, he has used racist language to talk about Muslims and other minorities, and today, in the face of this report, all he can muster is a non-apology, expressing remorse not for what he said but that people took offence,” said Nick Lowles, CEO of advocacy group Hope not Hate.

The inquiry carried a number of recommendations including an action plan for party leadership, to be produced within six weeks, laying out how they plan to tackle the failings highlighted.

Johnson eventually apologised for his comments, a delay that further eroded confidence among Muslim Britons, and only did so during the general election campaign in an appearance on ITV’s This Morning, despite long being aware of the pain his words had caused.

Johnson’s statements about Muslims were insensitive, to put it mildly, and the prime minister doubled down on his position on numerous occasions. That isn’t right.

What’s more, the crux of the matter is the fact that Islamophobia is an ongoing problem within the party.

The Singh report found that there was clear evidence of a party complaints system in need of overhaul, submitting that the party has an inadequately trained complaints team and a weak data-collection system, and that communications between the complaints team and complainants and respondents have been poor.

It concluded that the complaints process was “undersourced”, which only leads to further questions, given that the party has donors who can afford to loan Johnson money for wallpaper.

Concerns around Islamophobia within the party have been raised for years, most notably by Tory former minister Lady Warsi, who said she felt “vindicated” by the inquiry’s outcome.

As such, there have been ample missed opportunities for party leaders to address the issue.