Isn't it time the Tories removed the whip from Fabricant?

Tory MP Michael Fabricant who has a history of making bigoted and Islamophobic remarks has been slammed for now claiming that Nusrat Ghani is ‘hardly obviously Muslim’.

He made the comments during an LBC interview, after Ghani revealed that she was sacked as a minister because of her Muslim faith.

Unlike some of his colleagues who called for the matter to be looked into and who showed support for Ghani, Fabricant decided instead that the best way to deal with such serious allegations was to undermine the idea Ghani was Muslim.

Speaking on LBC, Mr Fabricant said: “The timing is interesting. I think all this is because it’s open season on Boris Johnson, putting pressure on him from the party trying to get him to resign.

“I think the whole thing actually stinks, the accusation being made by Nus Ghani.

“She’s hardly someone who is obviously a Muslim. I had no idea what religion she is. It does seem rather a lame excuse to me that she was sacked because of that.”

Fabricant’s comments sparked a major backlash. Anneliese Dodds said: “For a Conservative MP, Michael Fabricant, to go on the radio and make comments that reflect exactly the sort of unacceptable behaviour Nusrat has raised shows just how deep the problem in the Conservative Party goes.”

Adil Ray tweeted: “Imagine if an MP accused a gay person of not looking ‘obviously gay’ which means they can’t blame others and can’t really call out prejudice. The MP would be sacked within hours. Fabricant has said exactly that about a Muslim woman. Not a peep from the party. That’s Islamophobia.”

Labour MP David Lammy called Fabricant’s comments ‘appalling’ and ‘disgraceful’ and said that if the Tories were serious about tackling Islamophobia, ‘they could start by removing the whip from Michael Fabricant’.

Basit Mahmood is editor of Left Foot Forward

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