One councillor had described Saudi people as ‘sand peasants’
The Conservatives have reportedly reinstated 15 councillors who had been suspended from the party after it emerged they had posted content online deemed to be racist or Islamophobic.
One councillor had described Saudi people as ‘sand peasants’ and others had shared posts comparing Asian people to dogs.
After having their membership revoked in the immediate aftermath of these revelations, the party has quietly reinstated them according to a Guardian investigation.
This comes after the number of anti-Muslim hate crimes rose by a reported 593% in the aftermath of the Christchurch terror attacks, when 50 people were killed by a shooter at two separate mosques in New Zealand.
After the posts deemed to be objectionable were discovered, Conservative Muslim Forum, Mohammed Amin, called on the party to publish a set of formal disciplinary processes.
A spokesperson said on Sunday that the party “acted swiftly, suspending members and launching immediate investigations, in sharp contrast to other parties” after evidence of racism on councillors’ social media accounts was presented to them.
However, it now seems that the Tory party have readmitted 15 councillors to the party in spite of their apparent racism online.
The party have combatted this by claiming that selective cases did not provide a complete picture of how complaints were dealt with.
Councillors who were initially suspended before being reinstated include the Conservative leader of Swale borough council, Andrew Bowles, who was suspended for 13 days after he retweeted a tweet describing far-right agitator Tommy Robinson as a patriot and condemned Facebook’s decision to ban him from their platforms.
Bowels’ defence was that he was defending Robinson’s right to “have his say” and does not “have any racist or Islamophobic views”.
Another councillor to have been readmitted after a suspension is Rosemary Carroll of the Pendle borough council. Carroll was suspended for three months for sharing a joke on Facebook that compared Asian people to dogs. She claimed it had been shared by accident.
Carroll’s readmission came at a very convenient time for the Tories, as she returned on the day of the local election count, meaning the party took control of the local authority by one seat.
Mohamed Amin has said the Tories have struggled to “come to terms with the way our country had changed over the last 60s years”.
“There is a problem, in my view, particularly at grassroots level, with far too many people who have absorbed anti-Muslim bigotry, because there is quite a lot of it around,” he said.
“In terms of terrorism carried out in the name of Islam – 9/11, 7/7 etc – it’s quite easy to see where these anti-Muslim ideas come from. But the party as a whole, in my view, hasn’t succeeded in getting to grips with that.”
“There is one fundamental change that is required,” Amin said. “There needs to be a more transparent process, much clearer criteria, which are published. Not just criteria for suspending people but criteria for unsuspending people.
“I personally don’t necessarily have a problem with unsuspending people who have apologised and undergone diversity training, for example. But what we need is a clear published rule book.”
A Conservative spokesman said: “Discrimination or abuse of any kind is wrong. When CCHQ has been made aware of the small number of such cases we have acted swiftly, suspending members and launching immediate investigations, in sharp contrast to other parties.
“Our complaints process is rightly a confidential one but there are a wide range of sanctions to challenge and change behaviour, including conditions to undertake training, a period of suspension and expulsion, and these are applied on a case-by-case basis.”
It’s important to note that not all complaints are made to CCHQ (Conservative Campaign Headquarters), and some cases are handled locally.
Miqdaad Versi, assistant secretary general of the Muslim Council of Britain, said: “It’s clear to me that the party wants to sweep this issue under the carpet and it cares more about the public image than stopping racism have a hold in the party.”
“At the very minimum they need to have an independent person look at this. I don’t think people really have trust that the chair of the party has any handle on the situation whatsoever.”
