14 Tories suspended over Islamophobia

FOURTEEN Conservative Party members have been suspended after posting Islamophobic or racist comments on social media, it emerged yesterday.

The remarks were found on a pro-Jacob Rees-Mogg Facebook group, including calls for Muslims to be ‘turfed out of public office’, for the Government to ‘get rid of all mosques’ and calling Muslim Home Secretary Sajid Javid a ‘Trojan horse’.

Theresa May was accused of ‘burying her head in the sand’ over ‘institutional Islamophobia’ in the party by former Tory chairman Baroness Warsi. She said yesterday that the Prime Minister had ‘failed to tackle the problem head on’.

She spoke out after council candidate Peter Lamb, who had been suspended over controversial comments about Muslims, was reinstated by his local Tory party in Harlow, Essex. Mr Lamb had posted incendiary messages on Twitter in 2015 such as saying: ‘Islam [was] like alcoholism... the first step to recovery is admit you have a problem.’ He was reinstated before 201 council elections after apologising.

‘[Mrs May] doesn’t listen, she fails to acknowledge when there is a problem,’ Baroness Warsi said. ‘It’s probably symptomatic of the way in which her leadership has dealt with other matters.’

Party sources said Mr Lamb had quit the party yesterday over the row. In response to the 14 member suspensions reported by Buzzfeed, a party spokesman said: ‘This Facebook group is in no way affiliated with the Conservative Party... however, we have identified some party members and they have been immediately suspended.’