Tories should suspend or even kick out Johnson
The public, quite rightly, have high expectations that politicians should conduct themselves appropriately when speaking, or writing, about issues which have the potential to cause offence, or when making pronouncements which might bolster or incite extreme racist views.
Like most people I was appalled by Boris Johnson’s latest comments about Muslim women who choose to dress and practice their faith freely.
Regardless of the fact that he ultimately came out against banning the burka, the terminology he used to describe women who choose to wear it was grossly offensive.
However, the comments were not an accidental gaffe, I believe they were a calculated and callous insult against Muslim women.
I am pleased to see that there will be an internal Tory Party investigation into his behaviour. This should result in his suspension or even expulsion from the party, if they are serious about addressing this type of unacceptable comment.
Johnson’s behaviour is not an isolated incident and the Prime Minister’s refusal to condemn him follows her lack of action towards Tory MP Michael Fabricant – who tweeted a blatantly Islamophobic picture of Sadiq Khan last month.
In the wake of that incident, the Imam of Finsbury Park mosque also condemned the Tory government’s response to tackling Islamophobia. Mohammed Mahmoud warned that the government’s approach was “lacklustre, or worse, in denial”.
Tory Baroness Sayeeda Warsi – the former co-chair of the Conservative party – has also challenged the open Islamophobia being trumpeted within Tory ranks.
Given that it was also revealed last month that Boris Johnson and other Tory MPs had met with Steve Bannon – Donald Trump’s former advisor and an extreme far-right conspiracy theorist, who has peddled Islamophobic and anti-Semitic sentiments – it is fair to say that the Tories have a major problem on their hands and their credibility on this issue is currently in tatters.
The Labour party must also address the problems with Islamophobia and antiSemitism within its ranks.
Locally, South Lanarkshire Labour group leader, Davie McLaughlan, remains suspended from the party as an investigation into his alleged Islamophobic comments about Anas Sarwar rumbles on.
No urgent action was taken when East Kilbride Labour councillor Gerry Convery admitted to muttering a Nazi slogan at a council meeting in June.
Meantime, both the UK and Scottish branch Labour leaders are embroiled in a long-running and divisive anti-Semitism row.
At the moment when the UK is facing a potentially catastrophic, blind Brexit, Scotland’s interests are being sidelined by both the Tory government and Labour opposition who are both devoid of solutions that will protect jobs and our economy postBrexit and, worse still, are both harbouring politicians whose words and actions reflect smallminded and discriminatory attitudes.
Labour must also address problems within their ranks