Nusrat Ghani, a Muslim MP appointed to a post in British PM Boris Johnson’s government claimed that her “Muslimness was raised as an issue” when she lost her job after a reshuffle within the government in 2020.
According to Sunday Times, Tory Nusrat Ghani, who is the first female Muslim minister to speak at Commons, said that a government whip explained to her that her status as a "Muslim woman... was making colleagues uncomfortable".
The Wealden MP is quoted as saying that she did not file a complaint after being told that if she "persisted" in asking about it she "would be ostracised and her career and reputation would be destroyed".
'PM Said He Could Not Get Involved': Ghani
Nusrat Ghani tweeted on Sunday, "When I told the Prime Minister in June 2020 what had been said to me in the Government Whip's Office, I urged him to instigate an inquiry. He wrote to me that he could not get involved in the process and suggested I use the internal Conservative Party complaint process."
She added that she did not file a complaint because it was "very clearly not appropriate for something that happened on government business".
“I do not even know if the words that were conveyed to me about what was said in reshuffle meetings at Downing Street were by members of the Conservative Party," said Ghani.
Conservative Chief Whip Mark Spencer clarified in a tweet on Sunday that he was the person Ghani was referring to and said that her claims were completely false and were he considered them defamatory. He added, "These claims relate to a meeting in March, 2020. When Ms Ghani raised them she was invited to use the formal CCHQ (Code of Conduct Conservative Party) for complaints procedure. She declined to do so."
It is disappointing that when this issue was raised before Ms Ghani declined to refer the matter to the Conservative Party for a formal investigation. I provided evidence to the Singh Investigation into Islamophobia which concluded that there was no credible basis for the claimsMark Spencer, Conservative Chief Whip
Ghani was appointed to a post at the Department for Transport in 2018.
(With inputs from Sunday Times)
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