A dressing down

Your leader says that “Boris Johnson’s recent inflammatory remarks about clothes worn by some Muslim women were condemned most vociferously by those within his own party (31 August). Maybe so, but many Muslim scholars and others publicly agreed with him.

Moreover, Johnson’s “letterbox” comment had already been anticipated in the Guardian in 2013 by a Muslim woman, Remona Aly, whose accompanying photo in the paper showed her wearing a chador. I recall no outrage or condemnation then.

This partiality is also mirrored by the critique of Tories advocating a “hostile environment” for illegal immigrants (not all immigrants). Those words were first used in 2007 by the Labour minister Liam Byrne and effectively reinforced in March 2013 by Labour’s shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper when she accused David Cameron’s government of not taking strong enough action.

Using the Windrush debacle in any way whatsoever in this connection is crass by both parties, which together bear responsibility for its flawed results.

JOHN BIRKETT

Horseleys Park, St Andrews