Ex-Tory councillor discriminated against, report says

A former Conservative councillor was repeatedly discriminated against on the basis of his Muslim faith or Pakistani background, a confidential independent report has found.

Mohammed Arif, a Walsall councillor, claimed he was blocked from standing for re-election by the local party in 2015 and discriminated against.

He said he had not received an "open and frank" apology from the party.

A Conservative Party spokesperson said they were unable to comment.

They said it was because of an ongoing court case.

The Conservatives have recently faced scrutiny over alleged Islamophobia in the party's ranks, following the suspension of the former deputy chairman Lee Anderson who has since joined Reform UK, for claiming "Islamists" had "got control" the Mayor of London.

Mr Arif took legal action against Walsall Conservative Federation and the national party in 2019.

The Conservative Party settled the claim and ordered an investigation into the allegations by an independent barrister.

While some allegations were dismissed, the report, which was written in 2021, found several occasions over a number of years when Mr Arif was discriminated against because of race or religion by Walsall Conservative Federation, including when he was later expelled from the party.

The report's findings said the party's national headquarters "lacked the appropriate tools" to deal with "persistent discrimination" by Walsall Conservative Federation which she said was maintained despite "repeated interventions" by Conservative head office.

The report said at the time there were few mechanisms that could be used against local associations.

It echoed concerns raised by a report into allegations of Islamophobia within the Conservative Party by Prof Swaran Singh, which had been published a few months earlier in 2021.

Since then, the party said it had implemented several of the recommendations, though an update by Prof Singh last year found progress had been "slow".

The Federation in Walsall refused to participate in the investigation, and said it could not comment further.

It has "vehemently denied" allegations of discrimination.

Mr Arif said: "No one wants to be discriminated against, and I certainly have felt discrimination, and the impact of that on health, mental health and financial health is immense."

He said action from the national Conservative Party had been inadequate, and while it offered him a written apology as recommended by the report he had refused because it wasn't a "full and open" apology.

"I think the national party pays lip service to discrimination, particularly Muslim discrimination, particularly Islamophobia.

"I think they're of the mind that they see no evil, hear no evil when it comes to discrimination against the Muslim community, against Muslim individuals who have served the Conservative Party for the last 30-plus years.

"Discrimination against any other individuals or groups within the Conservative Party is not tolerated. I don't hold much hope for the Conservative Party to take Islamophobia seriously."

The BBC obtained a copy of the barrister's report which forms part of an ongoing court case between Mr Arif and the Walsall Conservative Federation.

It sets out several years of claim and counter-claim between individuals in Walsall relating to the running of the Conservative federation, the process of selecting candidates to stand for the party, the approach to planning applications and allegations of "corruption" and "personal vendettas".

It says in 2014 there was a "witch hunt" against Muslim party members, with a number being kicked out of the party.

The national Conservative Party intervened, saying the members should be re-instated.

In 2015, an email from the party's then chairman of its national disciplinary committee, Simon Mort, said that pursuing "any kind of inquiry" into an alleged "Islamist plot" was the "road to nowhere".

He added: "Everyone in Western Europe has to a varying degree a nerviness about Muslims perpetrating some kind of mischief and reifying this sort of angst in the Party's context gets us nowhere… we are endeavouring to be a broad and representative party."

Mr Mort told the BBC the matter was still before the civil courts but it was important to note the world scene he was summarising in 2015 was "inhabited by Al-Qaeda and Islamic State [group] with threats of black flags over Buckingham Palace, the Houses of Parliament, the Vatican etc".

Later in 2015 Mr Arif, who had been a Conservative councillor in Walsall for 12 years, was prevented from standing for re-election.

He complained, and an investigation by the national party found that he should be allowed to apply again to ensure he had a fair hearing, but the original decision not to approve his candidacy had not been "motivated on religious grounds".

This decision was disputed by the findings of the barrister's report six years later.

Aileen McColgan KC said while it wasn't possible to distinguish between discrimination on the grounds of race or religion, she was satisfied Mr Arif was treated less favourably because of his identity as a Muslim or as a person of Pakistani origin.

Walsall Conservative Federation has denied allegations of discrimination, and the court case is ongoing.

BBC News has also challenged Mr Arif about whether some of his own use of social media could be considered discriminatory and offensive.

He recently reposted a message on X, formerly Twitter, describing the killing of Palestinian children in Gaza as a "holocaust".

Mr Arif said he totally condemned terrorism and only intended to highlight the suffering of innocent people.

But after the interview he told the BBC he had unshared that particular post because he "did not want to hurt the feelings of Jewish people".