Tory 'turmoil' blamed for slow Islamophobia action

"Turmoil" at the top of the Conservative Party is to blame for its slow progress on tackling Islamophobia, an independent review has found.

Prof Swaran Singh said the "political upheaval" of the past two years had impacted the party's efforts.

The Tories said there had been "significant progress" but there was "still work to be done".

The original inquiry was launched in 2020 following high-profile allegations of discrimination within the party.

In 2021 Prof Singh, a former equality and human rights commissioner, published a report, which found evidence of discrimination and anti-Muslim views at local association and individual level, although it said claims of "institutional racism" were not borne out by the evidence.

His latest review found the implementation of some of his recommendations had been "slow".

It said training at a local level is "mixed" and no formal process had been put in place to handle complaints of discriminatory behaviour involving the party's most senior members.

The report found individuals coming forward with allegations also needed better care.

"Politics is a rough business, but there is no reason why the complaints process should be indifferent or abrasive to the experience of individuals involved," it said.

However, the team welcomed "the wholehearted acceptance by the party" of the need to implement its recommendations.

Since the 2021 report was published, Boris Johnson was forced out as prime minister, while his successor Liz Truss lasted only 45 days in office after her economic policies sparked chaos in the financial markets.

Prof Singh wrote: "The two years since the publication of the report have seen considerable political upheaval in the UK.

"In that time, the Conservative Party has had three leaders and seven chairs.

"This turmoil has impacted on the party's efforts to implement our recommendations.

"Change took longer than expected, and challenges resulting from the interdependencies between recommendations contributed to delays in implementation."

His review highlighted one case where a complainant experienced further distress after no sanction was completed after nearly a year from the judgement, while the offending continued "undeterred".

The review found that between April and June 2022, there had been 212 complaints to the Conservative Party relating to 137 incidents.

Of these, five complaints were categorised as bullying or intimidation and three as sexual assault, while one complaint was about a member writing articles on an alt-right website.

Prof Singh made a number of new recommendations, including reviewing whether complaints against the most senior party members should be handled independently.

Conservative Party chairman Greg Hands said the party had made "significant progress" on Prof Singh's original recommendations, with 25 complete and just six ongoing.

"There is however still work to be done and this is a process of continual improvement," he said.

Prof Singh's original investigation considered a number of cases, including allegations against Zac Goldsmith's London mayoral campaign against Sadiq Khan in 2016 and comments made by former Prime Minister Mr Johnson in 2018, when he wrote that women wearing burkas looked like "letter boxes" or "bank robbers".

The review said such cases "give an impression to some of a party and leadership insensitive to Muslim communities".